Plato's Republic

[Justin Schwartz]

700
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw at hotmail.com>
>
> >So what kind of law or state is supposed to rule over the Karamazovs,
>or
> >for
> >that matter the Dorkins, the Coxs, the Browns, the Grimes', the
>Murrays,
> >the
> >Furuhashis', the Sokolowslis, the Schwartzs?
> >
>
>A liberal state premised on the fact of fundamental disagreement about
>ends,
>and based on the rule of law--is that so hard?
>
>jks
>
>=================
>
>Whizzed right past the constitutional phase of deliberation quite
>quickly didn't we? :-)
>
>Ian

I thought we did that in 1789. I hadn't realized we were constructing 
everything from scratch. No doubt a liberal state is unpopular. Every 
fruitcake with a particular conception of the good wants to make the cops 
enforce it against the unbelievers. That is why the ACLU is hated.

Chuck, I _seriously_ resent your crack about handcuffs. The whoie point of 
us civil libertarian liberals' liberalism is to keep the cops off our backs 
for doing stiff that doesn't hurt anyone, or is otherwise important to 
protect, like political protest.

Eric and Dave, sure, there complications, debates about what's fundamental, 
hard cases and different ways to decide them. Often particular cases will be 
quite difficult. That doesn't mean the principle of the thing is hard. It's 
not, and you agree with it, so why are you arguing?

jks

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