Philosophy 313 Readings: March 3-30

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

Material covered:
"Second Treatise on Government" by John Locke, and edited by Jonathan Bennett
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr.
"A Theory of Justice" by John Rawls
"Existentialism is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre

"Second Treatise on Government"

• "Adam did not have, whether by natural right as a father or through a positive gift from God, any such authority over his children or over the world as has been claimed... Even if he had, his heirs would not have the same right... If the right were to be passed on to his heirs, it would be indeterminate who were his heirs, because there is no law of nature or positive law of God that settles this question in every possible case; so it would be determinate who inherited the right and thus was entitled to rule." 
• "I take political power to be a right to make laws-- with the death penalty and consequently all lesser penalties-- for regulating and preserving property, and to employ the force of the community in enforcing such laws and defending the commonwealth from external attack; all this being only for the public good." 
• Richard Hooker, as edited by Jonathan Bennett: "Things that are equal must be measured by a single standard; so if I inevitably want to receive some good-- indeed as much good from every man as any man can want for himself-- how could I expect to have any part of my desire satisfied if I am not careful to satisfy the similar desires that other men, being all of the same nature, are bound to have?... Thus, my desire to be loved as much as possible by my natural equals gives me a natural duty to act towards them with the same love." 
• "We have the same abilities, and share in one common nature, so there can't be any rank-ordering that would authorize some of us to destroy others, as if we were made to be used be one another, as the lower kinds of creatures are made to be used by us." 
• "By breaking the law of nature, the offender declares himself to live by some rule other than that of reason and common fairness (which is the standard that God has set for the actions of men, for their mutual security); and so he becomes dangerous to mankind because he has disregarded and broken the tie that is meant to secure them from injury and violence." 
• "Wherever violence is used and injury done, even if it is done by people appointed to administer justice and is dressed up in the name, claims, or forms of law, it is still violence and injury."
• "That's why no-one can voluntarily enter into slavery. A man doesn't have the power to take his own life, so he can't voluntarily enslave himself to anyone, or put himself under the absolute, arbitrary power of someone else to take away his life whenever he pleases."
• "Nobody can give more power than he has; so  someone who cannot take away his own life cannot give someone else such a power over it." 
• "The labour of his body and the work of his hands, we may say, are strictly his. So when he takes something from the state that nature has provided and left it in, he mixes his labour with it, thus joining to it something that is his own; and in that way he makes it his property."
• "The water running in the fountain is everyone's, but who would doubt that the water in the pitcher belongs to the person who drew it out?" 
• "Anyone can through his labour come to own as much as he can use in a beneficial way before it spoils; anything beyond this is more than his share and belongs to others. Nothing was made by God for man to spoil or destroy." 
• "If he traded his store of nuts for a piece of metal that had a pleasing colour, or exchanged his sheep for shells, or his wool for a sparkling pebble or a diamond, and kept those-- the metal, shells, pebbles, diamonds-- in his possession all his life, this wasn't encroaching on anyone else's rights... What would take him beyond the bounds of his rightful property was not having a great deal but letting something spoil instead of being used. [ellipsis original]" 
• "What portion a man carved out for himself was easily seen; and it was useless as well as dishonest for him to carve out too much or take more than he needed." 
• "Any people who don't have such an authority to appeal to for the settlement of their disputes are still in the state of nature. Thus, every absolute monarch is in the state of nature with respect to those who are under his dominion."

"Letter from Birmingham Jail"

• "I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have basic organizational ties here. Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here." 
• "I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside agitator' idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider." 
• "You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being." 
• "In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action." 
• "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored." 
• "I am not afraid of the word 'tension.' I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth" 
• "We must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood." 
• "The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation." 
• "We have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily." 
• "Freedom is never voluntarily given up by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." 
• "The nations of Asia and Africa are moved with jetlike speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter." 
• "An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow, and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal." 
• "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which isthe absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, 'I agree with you in the goal you see, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action'..."
• "Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation." 
• "There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest." 
• "Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come." 
• "The question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?"
• "There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being 'disturbers of the peace' and 'outside agitators.'"
• "The judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century." 
• "It is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends... It is just as wrong, or even more, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends." 

"A Theory of Justice"

• "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust." 
• "Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others." 
• "The only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one; analogously, an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice." 
• "Social cooperation makes possible a better life for all than any would have if each were to live solely by his own efforts." 
• "Men are to decide in advance how they are to regulate their claims against one another and what is to be the foundation charter of their society." 

"Existentialism is a Humanism"

• "Both from this side and from the other we are also reproached for leaving out of account the solidarity of mankind and considering man in isolation." 
• "From the Christian side, we are reproached as people who deny the reality and seriousness of human affairs. For since we ignore the commandments of God and all values prescribed as eternal, nothing remains but what is strictly voluntary. Everyone can do what he likes, and will be incapable, from such a point of view, of condemning either the point of view or the action of anyone else." 
• "Existentialism, in our sense of the word, is a doctrine that does render human life possible; a doctrine, also, which affirms that every truth and every action imply both an environment and a human subjectivity." 
• "Those who appeal to the wisdom of the people-- which is a sad wisdom-- find ours sadder still." 
• "We all know how many common sayings can be quoted to this effect, and they all mean much the same-- that you must not oppose the powers that be; that you must not fight against superior force; must not meddle in matters that are above your station. Or that any action not in accordance with some tradition is mere romanticism; or that any undertaking which has not the support of proven experience is foredoomed to frustration; and that since experience has shown men to be invariable inclined to evil, there must be firm rules to restrain them, otherwise we shall have anarchy." 
• "Their excessive protests make me suspect that what is annoying them is not so much our pessimism, but, much more likely, our optimism. For at bottom, what is alarming in the doctrine that I am about to try to explain to you is-- is it not?-- that it confronts man with a possibility of choice."
• "In truth this is of all teachings the least scandalous and the most austere: it is intended strictly for technicians and philosophers." 
• "Existence comes before essence-- or, if you will... we must begin from the subjective." 
• "The paper-knife is at the same time an article producible in a certain manner and one which, on the other hand, serves a definite purpose, for one cannot suppose that a man would produce a paper-knife without knowing what it was for. Let us say, then, of the paperknife [sic?] that its essence-- that is to say the sum of the formulae and the qualities which made its production and its definition possible-- precedes its existence." 
• "Man possesses a human nature [according to Kant and other philosophers]; that 'human nature,' which is the conception of human being, is found in every man; which means that each man is a particular example of a universal conception, the conception of Man. In Kant, this universality goes so far that the wild man of the woods, man in the state of nature and the bourgeois are all contained in the same definition and have the same fundamental qualities. Here again, the essence of man precedes that historic existence which we confront in experience." 
• "If God does not exist there is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence, a being which exists before it can be defined by any conception of it. That being is man or, as Heidegger has it, the human reality. What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world-- and defines himself afterwards. If man as the existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself. Thus, there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it. Man simply is." 
• "When we say that man chooses himself, we do mean that every one of us must choose himself; but by that we also mean that in choosing for himself he chooses for all men. For in effect, of all the actions a man may take in order to create himself as he wills to be, there is not one which is not creative, at the same time, of an image of man such as he believes he ought to be."
• "To choose between this or that is at the same time to affirm the value of that which is chosen; for we are unable ever to choose the worse. What we choose is always the better; and nothing can be better for us unless it is better for all. If, moreover, existence precedes essence and we will to exist at the same time as we fashion our image, that image is valid for all and for the entire epoch in which we find ourselves. Our responsibility is thus much greater than we had supposed, for it concerns mankind as a whole." 
• "If, to take a more personal case, I decide to marry and to have children, even though this decision proceeds simply from my situation, from my passion or my desire, I am thereby committing not only myself, but humanity a a whole, to the practice of monogamy."
• "I am thus responsible for myself and for all men, and I am creating a certain image of man as I would have him to be. In fashioning myself I fashion man." 
• "The existentialist frankly states that man is in anguish. His meaning is as follows: When a man commits himself to anything, fully realising that he is not only choosing what he will be, but is thereby at the same time a legislator deciding for the whole of mankind-- in such a moment a man cannot escape from the sense of complete and profound responsibility." 
• "There are many, indeed, who show no such anxiety. But we affirm that they are merely disguising their anguish or are in flight from it." 
• "Anyone in such a case [as Abraham's] would wonder, first, whether it was indeed an angel and secondly, whether I am really Abraham. Where are the proofs? A certain mad woman who suffered from hallucinations said that people were telephoning her, and giving her orders. The doctor asked, 'But who is it that speaks to you?' She replied: 'He says it is God.' And what, indeed, could prove to her that it was God? If an angel appears to me, what is the proof that it is an angel; or, if I hear voices, who can prove that they proceed from heaven and not from hell, or from my own subconsciousness or some pathological condition? Who can prove that they are really addressed to me? Who, then, can prove that I am the proper person to impose, by my own choice, my conception of man upon mankind? I shall never find any proof whatever; there will be no sign to convince me of it. If a voice speaks to me, it is still I myself who must decide whether the voice is or is not that of an angel. If I regard a certain course of action as good, it is only I who choose to say that it is good and not bad. There is nothing to show that I am Abraham: nevertheless I also am obliged at every instant to perform actions which are examples." 
• "When, for instance, a military leader takes upon himself the responsibility for an attack and sends a number of men to their death, he chooses to do it and at bottom he alone chooses. No doubt under a higher command, but its orders, which are more general, require interpretation by him and upon that interpretation depends the life of ten, fourteen or twenty men. In making the decision, he cannot but feel a certain anguish." 
• "Dostoevsky once wrote: 'If God did not exist, everything would be permitted'; and that, for existentialism, is the starting point." 
• "If indeed existence precedes essence, one will never be able to explain one's action by reference to a given and specific human nature; in other words, there is no determinism-- man is free, man is freedom." 
• "Consequently, he found himself confronted by two very different modes of action; the one concrete, immediate, but directed towards only one individual; and the other an action addressed to an end indefinitely greater, a national collectivity, but for that reason very ambiguous-- and it might be frustrated on the way." 
• "The value of his feeling for his mother was determined precisely by the fact that he was standing by her. I may say that I love a certain friend enough to sacrifice such or such a sum of money for him, but I cannot prove that unless I have done it." 
• "A sentiment which is play-acting and one which is vital are two things that are hardly distinguishable one from another. To decide that I love my mother by staying beside her, and to play a comedy the upshot of which is that I do so-- these are nearly the same thing."
• "To choose an adviser is nevertheless to commit oneself by that choice. If you are a Christian, you will say, consult a priest; but there are collaborationists, priests who are resisters and priests who wait for the tide to turn: which will you choose?"
• "In coming to me, he knew what advice I should give him, and I had but one reply to make. You are free, therefore choose, that is to say, invent. No rule of general morality can show you what you ought to do: no signs are vouchsafed in this world." 
• "For the decipherment of the sign, however, he bears the entire responsibility. That is what 'abandonment' implies, that we ourselves decide our being. And with this abandonment goes anguish." 
• "Beyond the point at which the possibilities under consideration cease to affect my action, I ought to disinterest myself. For there is no God and no prevenient design, which can adapt the world and all its possibilities to my will. When Descartes said, 'Conquer yourself rather than the world,' what he meant was, at bottom, the same-- that we should act without hope." 
• "Marxists, to whom I have said this, have answered: 'Your action is limited, obviously, by your death; but you can rely upon the help of others. That is, you can count both upon what the others are doing to help you elsewhere, as in China and in Russia, and upon what they will do later, after your death, to take up your action and carry it forward to its final accomplishment which will be the revolution. Moreover you must rely upon this; not to do so is immoral.'"
• "I cannot count upon men whom I do not know, I cannot base my confidence upon human goodness or upon man's interest in the good of society, seeing that man is free and that there is no human nature which I can take as foundational." 
• "Tomorrow, after my death, some men may decide to establish Fascism, and the others may be so cowardly or so slack as to let them do so. If so, Fascism will then be the truth of man, and so much the worse for us. In reality, things will be such as men have decided they should be." 
• "I ought to commit myself and then act my commitment, according to the time-honoured formula that 'one need not hope in order to undertake one's work.'"
• "MAn is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realises himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is."
• "In reality and for the existentialist, there is no love apart from the deeds of love; no potentiality of love other than that which is manifested in loving; there is no genius other than that which is expressed in works of art. The genius of Proust is the totality of the works of Proust; the genius of Racine is the series of his tragedies, outside of which there is nothing. Why should we attribute to Racine the capacity to write yet another tragedy when that is precisely what he did not write? In life, a man commits himself, draws his own portrait and there is nothing but that portrait." 
• "When one says, 'You are nothing else but what you live,' it does not imply that an artist is to be judged solely by his works of art, for a thousand other things contribute no less to his definition as a man. What we mean to say is that a man is no other than a series of undertakings, that he is the sum, the organisation, the set of relations that constitute these undertakings." 
• "A coward is defined by the deed that he has done." 
• "It implies that people are born heroes: and that is, at bottom, what such people would like to think. If you are born cowards, you can be quite content, you can do nothing about it and you will be cowards all your lives whatever you do; and if you are born heroes you can again be quite content; you will be heroes all your lives eating and drinking heroically. Whereas the existentialist says that the coward makes himself cowardly, the hero makes himself heroic; and that there is always a possibility for the coward to give up cowardice and for the hero to stop being a hero."
• "All kinds of materialism lead one to treat every man including oneself as an object-- that is, as a set of pre-determined reactions, in no way different from the patterns of qualities and phenomoena which constitute a table, or a chair or a stone. Our aim is precisely to establish the human kingdom as a pattern of values in distinction from the material world." 
• "The man who discovers himself directly in the cogito also discovers all the others, and discovers them as the condition of his own existence." 
• "Whenever a man chooses his purpose and his commitment in all clearness and in all sincerity, whatever that purpose may be, it is impossible for him to prefer another." 
• "We do not believe in progress. Progress implies amelioration; but man is always the same, facing a situation which is always changing, and choice remains always a choice in the situation." 
• "Kant declared that freedom is a will both to itself and to the freedom of others."