What is the General Will?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s concept of the General Will roughly means “that which is in the best interest of the people” or “the public good”, and not just popular consensus.
Philosophy and Thinking
Thinking is a mental process which allows humans to model the world, philosophy is the attempt to understand the world using logic and reason. The world being both the external and the internal, and both the knowable and unknowable.
For an overview of philosophy see our branches of philosophy page, for an introduction to philosophy check out Reason at Work (Amazon). Philosophy includes everything from economic and political philosophies, to the philosophies of emotions and mind, to cosmological and other other metaphysical questions, to the nature of god and religion, to the very nature of what we can know. Given that every subject has a science and philosophy (with the two often merging, such is the case in theoretical physics or mathematics) we have to be careful not to undervalue the practical aspects of this non-science.
Liberty and Equality are Mutually Dependent Fact
We present an essay on the purpose of the laws and government to better understand how liberty, rights, equality, and justice are inseparable in nature and in civil society.
If You Tell the Truth, You Don’t Have to Remember Anything Fact
Mark Twain is said to have said, “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything”, meaning if you tell a lie you have to remember what lie you told to who.
Why Do Dictators Have Mustaches?
Villains tend to have mustaches, not because facial hair is evil, but because despots style themselves after other despots.
Types of Governments
We explain and list the types of governments. We cover the basic classical forms of government, the many types of governments that can be derived from the classical forms, and the actual forms of governments in practice.
There are Different Types of Value and Capital Fact
There are different types of capital, value, commodities, and markets including natural, human, social, manufactured, and financial.
Madison Drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights Fact
Madison drafted both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, but he wasn’t the sole author of either, both were debated and approved by committees.
Social Contract Theory and the State of Nature
Social Contract Theory is the theory of why people form governments based on how people lived in a State of Nature before government.
Essentialism vs. Existentialism
Essentialism is the idea that everything has an essence (something that “makes it, it”). Existentialism says there is no essence (no intrinsic meaning that can be confirmed by the senses or reason).
Plato Vs. Aristotle (Politics)
Plato can be understood as the father of rationalism and political philosophy (political idealism), and Aristotle, his student, the father of empiricism and political science (political realism).