In Plain Sight

Natural Ethics and Political Premises: The Futility Of Politics and Property Conventions As The Basis Of Unmerited Privilege And Class

This paper has been accepted into the Working Class Studies Association conference in St. Paul's on June 14th thru 17th. It will be presented as a part of the "Working Class Political Theory" panel.

Abstract

In this paper we deal with the foundations of political theory.

We propose a theory of Natural Ethics that deals with the inevitable behaviors of individuals in groups. It is not concerned with prescription but with the development of a positivist theory of natural behavior. It deals with what does and will happen, not with what should happen.

The proposal asserts that only two forces shape human social behavior. The first of these forces is the inevitable behavior that arises from genetic disposition in its environment. The second of these forces is the convention embodied by the group. Convention serves only to mitigate the intensity of inevitable behaviors, increasing or reducing their effect. It cannot eliminate such behavior, and nor can it introduce entirely new behaviors into the world.

According to this theory immediate and decisive social choices by leading members of a society are the inevitable product of these forces and not the product of free will. Contrary to popular perception, politics is futile; merely the drama surrounding inevitable outcomes that changes only how events are perceived.

The actions necessary to manipulate social behavior reduce to the advocacy by individuals of new ethical imperatives that are eventually sustained by precedence in social convention and formalized in civil and criminal law. For this reason preachers of any kind have a great impact upon social outcomes, while politicians essentially have none.

This paper uses the theory for an informal analysis of social behavior and fortunes in society. It makes the case that prevailing property conventions are the primary basis of unmerited privilege and class.

The model potentially provides the basis of ideal political theory and formal methods for the prediction of complex social behaviors.

Political Premises

IASE
Sunnyvale, California

Abstract

In this paper we deal with the foundations of political theory.

Natural Ethics is the science that deals with the inevitable behaviors of individuals in groups. It is not concerned with prescription but with developing an understanding of natural behaviors. It deals with what does and will happen, and not with what should happen.

An understanding of natural ethics potentially provides the basis of ideal political theory and a foundation for the development of effective society. By understanding the inevitable behaviors of species in groups we are able to appreciate the predicament of others and identify the actions necessary to contribute to productive and mutually beneficial social orders.

These actions reduce to the advocacy of new ethical imperatives later sustained by precedence in social convention as well as civil and criminal law. Such conventions shape human behavior by mitigating natural ethics, increasing or reducing their effect.

This paper examines political premises and the implications of natural ethics in political theory.

On the Futility of Politics

IASE
Sunnyvale, California

Abstract

This paper considers the following proposition:

If Al Gore had become president in the year 2000 then all of the actual events that have marked the political landscape in the world in the following eight years would have unfolded in precisely the same way. The only thing that would be different is our perception of those events. We would feel different because the actual and reported experience of the narrative, the drama, that surrounded those events is different, but that is all.

This is a specific example of a more general proposal that this paper examines. The proposal asserts that only two forces shape human behavior and the behavior of any species. The first of these forces is the inevitable behavior that arises from genetic disposition in its environment. We will refer to this inevitable behavior as natural ethics. The second of these forces is the convention embodied by the group. Convention serves to mitigate the intensity of natural ethics, increasing or reducing its effect. Convention cannot entirely eliminate a natural ethic, nor can convention introduce new behaviors into the world.

Hence the actions of individual politicians are only the superficial drama associated with the events that are, in fact, entirely outside of their control.

We conclude that the question here is not whether the proposition is true or not, but rather to what degree it is true and to what degree individual decisions are adjudicated or inevitable.