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From: walker@oberon.UUCP (Mike Walker)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: (micromotives & macrobehavior & microcephali)
Message-ID: <124@oberon.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Sep-85 11:50:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: oberon.124
Posted: Tue Sep 24 11:50:30 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 05:57:53 EDT
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> Laura Creighton says
> I don't know why you separate moral rights from moral philosophy. I agree
> that they are a basis of political philosophy, but I don't see how they
> can be said to be derived from moral philosophy. In a good many moral
> systems, rights are *given* and thus moral philosophy can be said to
> derive from them (though not necessarily entirely from them).

Alright, moral rights (along with moral justice) are definitely part of
moral philosophy.  I don't see how rights can just said to be a given
without some more explicit basis.

> I don't think that the term ``political philosophy'' implies a state.  If
> you want to do away with teh state entirely you can be an anarchist political
> philosopher -- and can probably get that point across early on. If you
> start calling it ``social philosophy'' you may find yourself involved in
> questions of sociology, which is fine if that is what you want, but not
> if what you want to discuss is a stateless society.

Hmmm, well by my Pocket Oxford, the word political means having to do with
a state.  I agree that dictionary quoting is a bad habit but your "average
man in the street" would assume politics was something to do with government.
I suppose one could use the term to include the absence of the state.
(But I'd like to break with the thinking of society solely in terms of having
a state.)

-- 
Michael D. Walker (Mike)
Arpa: walker@oberon.ARPA
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