Epistemological Questions: A Rational Starting Point

Every philosophy of society begins with an idea of human nature. Are we good? Bad? Evil? Perverted? What is it? This concept is the foundation of all major philosophies that have ever existed. Lao Tzu used the metaphor that we were a glorious mountain, good in nature, but that the growth of society ( i.e. tress, buildings, etc) covered our deeper nature, made us look evil. Hobbesian thought picked us as a weak and childish race that needed to be governed by a strong father, or a strong monarchy. This thought justified the better part of our history. Only recently have we broken away from this thought and have deemed human nature to be neither good nor bad but "the best that we can get." Given enough space and left alone to our devices, we will figure it out on our own. This type of thought is what has led to our present system of Capitalism. The philosophy that underpins our present "natural" order is one that stems from John Locke and Adam Smith. Both believed that the "natural" order was one that was better than anything we as humans could conjure up. That by leaving things alone (laissez-faire) a simple, free system would emerge that would only be harmed by any human involvement.

This initial framework of human nature is what drove the ideas of political economics. It is the underpinning of our present system and what drives many of our own thoughts about ourselves. Whether right or wrong, or off target this is the rational starting point of our world.

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