Polecon 100 Midterm

The Golden Mean (Aristotle)

Moral virtues are generally intermediate states (the mean) between the extremes of excess and deficiency.

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For example, courage is the mean between the excess of rashness and the deficiency of cowardice.

Virtue (Aristotle)

STATE OF CHARACTER (active) concerned with choice, LYING IN THE MEAN RELATIVE TO US, determined by reason and wisdom —> you have to choose to react with virute to certian feelings

■ Intellectual virtue: wisdom and understanding

■ Moral virtue: qualities of character

Practiced through deliberate choice and good action → aimed at human flourishing and living well

You cultivate virtue via debate

Just exchange (Aristotle)

form of proportional reciprocity that holds the polis (city-state) together

telos (Aristotle)

Every activity has a ___ which is an answer to the question, Why are you doing this?Happiness is the ultimate telos because there is no further telos beyond happiness

and because the ultimate goal of all our other activities is happine

happiness (Aristotle)

s is the ultimate good

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Human’s functions is to FIND TRUE HAPPINESS

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Happiness is the highest good because we choose happiness as an end itself

Some goods are pursued for the sake of higher goods. There must be one ultimate, supreme good that we desire for its own sake, not for the sake of anything else

MOST COMPLETE ACTIONS: things we do to achieve happiness

HAPPINESS AS AN ACTIVITY that’s self sufficient

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■ It’s self sufficient because it makes life worthy on its own without needing anything extra

Intellectual virtue

excellent qualities of the rational part of the mind that help a person grasp the truth, grow through teaching, experience, and time rather than habit alone

Soul (Aristotle)

• Nutritive Soul (Vegetative): The basic capacity responsible for growth, self-nourishment, and reproduction. This is found in all living things, including plants, animals, and humans. [1, 2, 3, 4]

• Sensitive Soul (Perceptive): The capacity that adds sensation, perception, pain, desire, and physical movement. This is found in animals and humans (incorporating the nutritive functions). [1, 2, 3]

• Rational Soul: The capacity unique to humans that enables logical reasoning, thought, and moral deliberation. It incorporates both the nutritive and sensitive functions while adding the power of the mind (noûs)

rational soul (Aristotle)

• The capacity unique to humans that enables logical reasoning, thought, and moral deliberation. It incorporates both the nutritive and sensitive functions while adding the power of the mind (noûs)

• intellectual virtue exercises this

Distributive Justice (Aristotle)

ALLOCATION based on merit

• HOw honors, wealth, and public goods are divided among citizens

  • Faire and proportional division of common goods, wealth, honors 

• Proportionate reciprocity: treating equals equally and unequals unequally based on merit 

• As needed or as merited

• How a community divides up wealth, public offices, honors, and benefits 

• Example: If a group builds a company, people who contribute more skill or hard work deserve a bigger share than those who contribute less. Giving the best flute to the best flute player is distributive justice

  • Welfare, public allocation and distribution of resources 

Corrective Justice (Aristotle)

FIXING A WRONG

• HOW PRIVATE TRANSACTIONS, HARMS, AND CRIMES ARE CORRECTED OR REMEDIATED

• Arithmetic Proportion: Merit is ignored. The judge treats the parties as equals and looks only at the damage done, restoring balance by taking from the winner's "gain" and giving to the loser's "loss."

• Balanced reciprocity

  • COMPENSATE EQUALLY 

• How the law fixes imbalance caused by crime 

• Arithmetic equality—it ignores who you are, your status, or your wealth. It only looks at the loss and the gain, and forces the wrongdoer to pay back or repair what was broken.

  • If someone steals $100 from you, corrective justice forces them to return that exact $100 to make things even again

3 kinds of justice (Aristotle)

1. Utility: Based on the material benefit or advantage the parties provide each other.

2. Pleasure: Based on the enjoyment, wit, or pleasant company the parties share.

3. Goodness (Virtue): Based on mutual admiration of each other's character.

   1. complete friendship: friendship of good people  identical in virtue. It is characterized by friends wishing good to one another for the friend's own sake. It is enduring, encompasses both utility and pleasure naturally, and requires time and intimacy to develop.

      
      

natural slave (Aristotle)

INABILITY TO DELIBERATE

•  some human beings are inherently suited to be owned and directed by others because they lack the full capacity for independent rational deliberation

  • nature pairs between beings who can reason and those who can’t 

  •  Lacks the deliberative part of the soul entirely; they can understand reason when they hear it, but they cannot generate it or guide their own lives by it.

  • Not everyone who was born into slavery is a slave 

homo politicus (aristotle)

• Aristotle defines human beings as being a political animal who is meant to live in political community (closest to divine you get) and debate/contemplate

  • We are naturally meant to live in polis (city)

  • We possess reason and speech making true political association possible 

  • human being's nature is only fully realized within a community; as he famously noted, anyone who lives outside a city-state is either a beast or a god

ultimate goal of humanity (aristotle)

happiness and to flourish

• we are meant to live in politicla community and deliberate

  • Divinity of reason: Intellect (nous) is the highest part of human nature. Contemplation connects humans to the divine because the objects of thought are eternal. 

    • Thinking is good because we are endowed with reason which nobody else has; this can go on forever

• end goal of a city is a life of good quality for its citizens

• justice is the end goal of politics

Criterias for a virtuous act (Aristotle)

1. Knowledge: You must know what you are doing.

2. Choice: You must deliberately choose the action for its own sake.

3. Character: The action must spring from a firm and unchangeable character.

IT’S A STATE (HEXIS)

political life (machiavelli)

•  as a BATTLE FOUGHT BY ELITES to secure power and glory and evade the vicissitudes of fate and human needs

  • Not for human good 

  • Competition between other leaders

  • Keep population satisfied enough to keep power 

  • Not noble, earthly ambition 

    • Best rulers may not necessarily be the most religious, will have to do bad things

How to be a good ruler (machiavelli)

• You don’t necessarily have to be a good person (have integrity)

  • Huge departure from goldiness and religious morality

• Need MILITARY POWER AND GOOD STRATEGY TO TAKE AND KEEP POWER

• LOVE OF COUNTRY IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR 

  • Ruler must love country more than soul → ruling is tragic without redemption and without justification

It is better to be feared than loved

• Love by bond of gratitude is easily broken

  • Love is heavily transient 

• FEAR IS STRENGTHENED BY A DREAD OF PUNISHMENT WHICH IS ALWAYS EFFECTIVE 

  • Fear remains and is reliable

Compassion, like generosity, is usually admired. But a prince must be careful that he does not show compassion unwisely. If a prince is too compassionate, and does not adequately punish disloyal subjects, he creates an atmosphere of disorder, since his subjects take the liberty to do what they please—even to the extremes of murder and theft

 men, by nature, are “ungrateful, fickle, dissembling, anxious to flee danger, and covetous of gain.” In times of remote danger, they are willing to take risks for their prince, but if the danger is real, they turn against their prince. It is easy to break a bond of love when the situation arises, but the fear of punishment is always effective, regardless of the situation.

virtu (machiavelli)

means a leader's SPIRIT, ability, strength, courage, and effectiveness rather than traditional Christian or moral goodness

• self-reliance as the greatest virtu

• Leader's skill, decisiveness, strength, and ability to adapt to changing circumstances

appearance of virtue (Machiavelli)

calculate public facade or moral goodness use to maintain the people’s support

how to get and keep princely glory (machiavelli)

1. be prepared for war

2. ally with the weak

3. don’t make big institutional changes

4. citizen army

5. don’t splurge tax revenue

what a prince should avoid (machiavelli)

1. internal insurrection

2. external threats from foreign powers

foturna (machaivelli)

•  the unpredictable force of luck, chance, or external circumstances that can threaten political order and a ruler’s stability 

  • It’s really unstable because they don’t know how to maintain their position 

    • Don’t have loyal troops devoted to them, no strong foundation

prowess (machiavelli)

•  a leader’s personal capability and strength to conquer and govern 

  • Opposite of blind luck or fortune 

Ultimate goal of the state (machiavelli)

PATIROTISM, DEFENSE OF STATE AND RULER

• not happiness

Hobbes on human equality

In state of nature,  All humans are equal in BODY AND MIND 

1. In natural law and state of nature (even if someone is stronger of smarter, the difference isn’t vast enough for anyone to claim an inherent advantage) 

2. Equalizer: even the weakest persona enough strength or is cunning enough to kill the strongest

3. The problem: Because everyone is equal in ability, everyone has an equal hope of achieving their desires. If two people want the same limited resource, they instantly become enemies and try to conquer or destroy one another

State of nature problems (hobbes)

• We are free but not safe 

  • Before a contract (covenant) is made, nor rights have been made, nor gifts have been transferred, so you can do whatever you want, no matter how unjust 

    • YOU NEED TO BE COERCED 

covenant without sword and of no strength to secure a man at all (Hobbes)

• words are weak, and a covenant is instantly void if there is any reasonable suspicion that one party will back out.

• you need to COERCIVE CIVIL POWER for justice to exist (leviathan)

state of warre (hobbes)

• every man vs every man 

  • in this state of chaos there’s no security, resulting in his most famous quote regarding human life:

    • "In such conditions, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain... no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall fear, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.

    • Sustained disposition to violence where nobody has security 

    • Life is solitary and short: without industry, agriculture, or trade human existence is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” due to the constant fear of violent death

self defense as a fundamental right (Hobbes)

you keep the right to ___ in civil society, but this dominates state of nature anad allows for the state of warre to persist

Laws of nature (Hobbes)

1. Man seeks peace and will follow it unless attacked

   1. Then you have the natural right to define himself → self interested pursuit of peace

2. Man enjoys Liberty yet is willing, when others are, to give some of the liberty to cooperated

   1. SELF INTERESTED COOPERATION 

what separates us from animals (hobbes)

Hobbes contrasts humans with social creatures like bees and ants, which naturally live in harmony.

Humans cannot do this because we constantly compete for honor and dignity,

Absolute rights of the sovereign (Hobbes)

1. You’re locked into and you cannot lawfully make a new covenant 

2. Sovereign power cannot be forfeited 

   1. People make a deal with each other to surrender their rights to the sovereign → sovereign cannot breach the contract

   2. Citizens can never claim the ruler broke their promise as an excuse to rebel 

3. Majority rules the dissenters

   1. If the majority votes to establish a specific sovereign → everyone must submit 

4. The sovereign's actions cannot be accused of injustice (is the sovereign infallible?)

   1. a person cannot lock themselves into an agreement and then complain about an action they technically authorized; therefore, the sovereign cannot commit an injustice against a subject

5. Sovereign controls ideas and doctrine and determines property rights

6. SOVEREIGN IS THE SUPREME JUDGE 

   1. Holds the final judicial authority to hear and decide all controversies and legal disputes 

absolute monarchy (Hobbes)

The most practical and effective form of government for maintaining peace and security.

•  terms like tyranny or oligarchy are merely labels used by dissatisfied citizens rather than distinct systems,

Labor theory of property (Locke)

 argued that God gave the Earth to mankind in common, but He intended for it to be farmed, tilled, and shaped to support human life and convenience. By mixing one's labor with unowned natural resources, a person turns uncultivated land into private property

• Self-Ownership: Every person owns their own body and the physical or mental effort (labor) they exert.

• Labor Mixing: When a person applies labor to a common, unowned resource (such as picking fruit or tilling soil), they "mix" their labor with it, making it an extension of themselves.

• Value Creation: Locke argued that labor is the primary source of economic value, turning wild, uncultivated nature into productive goods. —> by cultivating the land you make it something of value

doctrine of power of the people (Locke)

Asserts that all legitimate political power originates from the consent of the governed and that ultimate sovereignty rests with the people rather than any ruler or monarch

• Gives you right to overthrow the government 

Tyranny (Locke)

• Exercise of power beyond right 

  • Any executive body (not just monarchy) that ceases to function for the benefit of the people is a tyranny

  • A just leader is bound by the laws of the legislative and works for the people, whereas a tyrant breaks the laws and acts on his own behalf.

State of Nature (locke)

•  involves people living together, governed by reason, without a common superior

• WE ARE ALL EQUAL IN STATE OF NATURE

• you don’t have the right to do whatever you want

• YET

  • Desire of a common judge or authority as defining characteristic  —> want impartial judge because we’re biased

  •  absence of authority requires individuals to protect themselves. 

• Right to punish 

  • Because there is no centralized government or judicial system to enforce the Law of Nature, the executive power is decentralized. In the state of nature, every individual has the right to enforce the law and punish transgressors. If someone violates another person's rights, the victim (and anyone else who wishes to assist) has the right to restrain the offender, seek reparation, and deter future crimes

natural rights (locke)

• Life: the right to self preservation

• Liberty: the right to act without arbitrary interference from others

• Property (estate): private property beings in the state of nature when a person mixes their own physical labor with the raw resources of the earth

L

1. sufficiency limits: you can appropriate property only if there is enough left in common for others

   1. Prevent monopolies and hoarding; ensures that one persons’s acquisition does not worsen the condition of others who also rely on nature to survive

2. Implicit labor limit: extent of human labor and convenience of life → you can only do so much with land

   1. refers to the uncredited, structural, or systemic labor that makes individual acquisition possible

3. Spoilage limit: only acquire to have convenient life but so much that it goes to waste 

   1. must not take more from nature than they can use before it spoils

   2. If you pick more food and it rots, you infringe on the rights of others 

   3. Role of money has effectively bypassed the spoilage limit 

Labor as the source of value (lcke)

• Lots of labor goes into one product: multiplicity of value → can you compute labor?

  • Money: we use it and agree to it so it’s good to use (outcome of mutual consent) 

    • It allows us to evaluate things 

why should you enter the state of nature (locke)

• In social contract, we trade away one type of freedom for a BETTER FREEDOM: PRODUCTIVITY

 identifies several fatal flaws—or "inconveniences"—that make life in the state of nature highly unstable:

1. Biased Enforcement: Because everyone acts as their own judge, jury, and executioner, people are naturally biased in their own favor and driven by passion or revenge, leading to unjust punishments. [1]

2. No Impartial Arbiter: There is no neutral third party to peacefully resolve property and contract disputes. [1]

3. Defenseless Rights: Weak or peaceful individuals may lack the physical power to enforce the Law of Nature against strong, aggressive transgressors.

To eliminate these vulnerabilities, individuals voluntarily enter into a social contract. They collectively agree to surrender their individual executive power (the right to punish) to a community. In exchange, they receive an impartial government tasked with a singular, conditional purpose: the protection of their natural life, liberty, and property. If a government fails to protect these rights, Locke argues that citizens retain the right to alter or overthrow

2 key principles of man (Rousseau)

1. Pity

2. Self preservation 

perfectibility (Rousseau)

• lows man to be changed in response to environment → what separates us is also our ability to adapt  

  • Natural forces like earthquakes drive men into all parts of the globe and force them to develop language and other skills 

• what separates us from animals

how inequality started (rousseau)

The invention of property and the division of labor represent the beginning of moral inequality.

• Allows for domination and exploitation of the poor by the rich 

  • These relations are dangerous and unstable leading to war 

  • As an attempt to escape from this war, the rich trick the poor into creating a political society. 

    • The poor believe that this creation will secure their freedom and safety, but in fact it merely fixes the relations of domination that existed before, creating laws to establish/justify inequality.

    •  Inequality is now more or less unrelated to man's original nature; physical inequality is replaced by moral inequality.

flaws of the current social contract (rousseau)

OUR CURRENT SOCIAL CONTRACT IS UNFAIR → IT DISTORTS OUR INNER NATION

• We’re becoming more civilized through science but we become ignorant of our true nature 

natural self love/amour de soi (Rousseau)

• A primitive, instinctive concern for one's own preservation, well-being, and basic physical needs (like food, shelter, and safety).

• 
  

amour propre (rousseau)

An artificial, social passion that emerges only when humans live among others and begin to compare themselves

• what others think of us encourage competition and envy and causes contrived moral inequality

humans in state of nature (rousseau)

• we are all naturally equal (despite minor diffeerences)

• absence of hierarchy: no privat eporperty, laws, organized labor

• SELF PRESERVATION (amour de soi) AND PITY

• savage man but is GUIDED BY INSTINCT

• solitary yet compassionate

why we should enter a social contract (rousseau)

• Exchange Natural Freedom for Civil Freedom: While we lose the unlimited, physical freedom to do whatever we please in the state of nature, we gain civil freedom and legal rights protected by the community. [1]

  • better kind of freedom

• Achieve Moral Liberty: Rousseau argues that true freedom is not doing whatever you want, but obeying laws that you give to yourself. By participating in the general will—the collective interest of the whole community—we act morally and rationally rather than out of base impulse.

• Overcome Inequality Caused by Property: As human society developed and people claimed private property, competition, greed, and stark inequalities ruined our natural peace. The rich often manipulated early laws to protect their own wealth. A genuine social contract resets this imbalance by making everyone an equal part of the sovereign power. [1, 2, 3]

• Preserve Self-Preservation with Equality:

There reaches a point in the state of nature, Rousseau suggests, when people need to combine forces in order to survive.

The problem resolved by the social contract is how people can bind themselves to one another and still preserve their freedom

Individual citizens have a life and a will of their own, but in binding themselves to the social contract, they also become a part of the larger life and will of the sovereign.

• because current soical contract is unfair

to transform our physical freedom into moral freedom and to protect ourselves while remaining truly free

man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains

• Natural Freedom: Rousseau believed that humans in a "state of nature" (before laws, governments, and complex civilizations) were independent, self-sufficient, and inherently free.

• Societal Chains: As societies grew, institutions like private property, class divisions, laws, and political structures bound individuals in dependency, inequality, and moral corruption. Even those who think they are masters over others remain trapped by the very systems of power they maintain.

• we’ll be freed from this by entering into a social contract that’s fair and makes authority legitimate. by establishing just laws, you acheive moral liberty

civil liberty (Rousseau)

• : Individuals lose their unlimited natural liberty (the right to grab whatever they want), but they gain civil liberty and legal ownership of property. [1]

• Moral freedom: entering into civil society replaces physical impulse and brute instinct with justice duty, and rational morality – humans become intelligent, moral beings

Our nature and instincts are transformed by being in a civil society → we become moral 

• Out inner constitutions differ (no longer as instinctual → GIVE ACTIONS MORALITY HE PREVIOUSLY LACKED

rationality and morality (Rouseau)

by entering into civil soviety and codifying jsutt laws, we become moral

• Out inner constitutions differ (no longer as instinctual → GIVE ACTIONS MORALITY HE PREVIOUSLY LACKED 

• rationality is what defines our actions as moral

  • Rationality and morality distinguish us from animals,

  •  it is only by becoming a part of civil society that we become human

sovereignty (Rousseau)

exercise of the general will of the people as a collective body

• Entire body of citizens united together (popular sovereignty)

• General will (represents the shared common interests of the community rather than the sum of private or selfish desires)

lawgiver

• Solution to how people can sit down and write up a code of law 

• People don’t always know what they want or what is best for them 

• Must be intelligent, willing to work selflessly on behalf of a people 

• Insightful, unbiased, not be a citizen to the state which he gives 

  • Outside and above the authority of the sovereign 

• Hard to find lawmaker of genius who doesn’t with to govern 

  • In past, used authority of god or divinity to support them (Moses) 

    • Appeal to supernatural origins of the laws is generally a good means of ensuring they are obeyed

will of all

• Definition: Merely the sum total of all the private, individual, and competing wills of the people. [1, 2]

• Perspective: It represents a collection of self-interested desires, private agendas, or factional demands rather than a unified vision of justice. [1, 2]

• Nature: It can be contradictory, fractured, and skewed toward whichever powerful minority or majority block shouts the loudest. [1, 2]

• Example: A room full of people each voting strictly to lower their own personal taxes while passing the cost onto someone else—the total result is an uncoordinated pile of private wishes, not a common good.

general will

• Definition: The collective will of the citizens that aims strictly at the common good and the shared welfare of the entire political community. [1, 2]

• Perspective: It requires individuals to think and act as citizens rather than isolated private agents, looking past personal or factional gains. [1, 2]

• Nature: It is indivisible, inalienable, and inherently right/just because it serves the true interest of the state as a whole. [1]

Sovereign vs the government (Rousseau)

separates the legislative power (belonging strictly to the sovereign people) from the executive power (belonging to the government or magistrates), making the executive completely subordinate to the general will. [1, 2, 3]

The Legislative Power (The Sovereign)

• Definition of Sovereign: The entire body of citizens united in a collective assembly, which holds true legislative power.

• Role: To express the general will and pass universal, abstract laws that apply equally to all citizens.

• Inalienability: Legislative power cannot be alienated, represented, or delegated to elected lawmaking representatives. The people themselves must directly enact the laws. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Executive Power (The Government)

• Definition of Government: An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign to execute application of the law.

• Role: To apply force to the law and manage day-to-day administration.

  • They apply the will of the people and don’t have sovereignty 

Natural propensity to trade, barter and exchange

 what makes humans unique and makes free trade essential

Real price (Smith)

• Measured by the quantity of labor or other goods a commodity can purchase or command.

  • Measured by the "toil and trouble" or the quantity of life's necessaries and conveniences given in exchange. Labor itself is the ultimate, invariable standard of value because the sacrifice of the worker's effort remains constant.

    • Amount of work and energy required to produce it 

  • Quantity of labor or effort to get an item

    • If a deer takes twice as much effort to catch as a beaver, the real price of the deer is twice that of the beaver

  • Toil and trouble→ WILL ALWAYS COME BACK TO LABOR 

    • Labor theory of value → labor command theory of value

      • Labor required to replace a given commodity in your possession 

Labor (Smith)

as the source of EXCHANGEABLE VALUE

• determines the real value and price of a good/sevice

• a commodtiy

nominal price (Smith)

•  Measured by money (gold, silver, or paper currency). [1, 2, 3, 4]

  • Measured by the quantity of money (such as gold or silver coin) given for a commodity. 

  • Because precious metals and currencies fluctuate in value due to inflation, mining discoveries, or debasement, money is a shifting and unreliable measure over long periods

3 components of a price of a commodity (Smith)

1. wages

2. rent

3. profit

natural price (smith)

s sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labor, and the profits of the stock in raising, preparing, and bringing it to market.”

• cost of production essentially

• the natural forces of the market should drive the market price back down to this

subistence wages and beyond bare surivial (Smith)

 Unlike later classical economists (such as David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus, who viewed wages as locked at a strict physical minimum), Smith recognized that a "just" or natural wage should allow workers a decent standard of living, enabling them to raise families and participate in society.

• a component of natural price

law of population (Smith)

• when there is lots of fertile land, there is high demand for land which causes wages to grow and wages to go down if numbers go up

  • Higher wages improve the living conditions and child survival rates of the working class, causing the supply of labor (population) to expand; and wages will go down 

law of accumulation (Smith)

• here fertile land is plentiful, surplus grows

  • However, As wages rise continuously due to competition among employers for scarce labor, profits begin to shrink

invisible hand

pursuing self interest is good

People buying, selling, and setting prices based on their own personal gain naturally balance supply and demand without needing a central government to tell them what to do

age of commerce (smith)

 when you cultivate enough grain for subsistence (Surplus allows for the launch of this)

imparital spectator (Smith)

• To judge our own behavior fairly, Smith introduces the psychological concept of an internal "impartial spectator". This is an imaginary, disinterested observer inside our minds that tells us how our actions and motives appear to the rest of the world

  • Third party

  • What kind of conduct is proper in this situation

  • General idea of someone watching you 

Fellow feeling (Smith)

Unlike the modern narrow definition of sympathy (which often means feeling pity or sorrow for someone's suffering), Smith's version applies to any emotional state or passion, positive or negative. → i think being able to relate basically and have a human connection

man within the breast

• personal conscience. [1, 2]

  • Our own understanding of impartial spectator, our individual conscience essential 

self command (smith)

part of. atype of virtue essential

• Impartial spectator may be there but we don’t have to listen to it 

  • Restraining our passions and impulses (rational part of the soul haha 

    • Controlling fear with dignity 

• Greatest display of self command may be employed in the cause of the greatest injustice 

Man of system (Smith)

• warns against arrogant planners who treat citizens like chess pieces on a board, failing to respect individual autonomy.

  • Conceited central planner who tries to force society to fit into an ideal blue print 

  • Falls in love with own imagined plan for the government 

  • Real humans have own free will, goals,a nd principles of motion

3 virtues (Smith)

1. Prudence:  Focuses on how concern for our own happiness guides us to develop caution, industry, and restraint. 

   1. True prudence combines the best head and the best heart, balancing physical safety, steady labor, and a rank appropriate to our actual self-worth without falling into pride or false self-deprecation.

   2. presence, health, fortune, reputation and rank:

2. Justice

   1. Doing right by others (not doing anything essentially → a negative virtue that restrains us from harming our neighbor)

      1. Basic fabric of society 

3. Beneficence

   1. active virtue that prompts us to promote the happiness and well-being of others, though it flows from voluntary affection rather than strict obligation.

Fictitious commodities (Polanyi)

• Labor: Simply human activity attached to life itself. It is not produced for sale; it is part of living.

  • Unlike what locke and smith claimed, labor is not supposed to be a commodity, it’s just supposed to be something we do to survive 

• Land: Another name for nature. It is subdivided and sold, but humans do not manufacture it.

  • Smith believes that fertile land is one of the ultimate measures of wealth 

  • The natural world is not for sale 

• Money: Merely a token of purchasing power or credit. It is a mechanism of banking, not a commodity grown or manufactured for profit.

  • Currency is just there to evaluate stuff 

  • We trade money as a commodity nowadays 

Deliberate planning of ree market

markets are unnatural and planned

• FIRST MARKET OF COMPETITIVE STATES (domestic free market) WAS CREATED BY GOVERNMENT TO SUPPORT MERCHANTS

• There is nothing natural about the free market

• Humans do not have a propensity to trade, barter and exchange 

positive check (Malthus) —> incrasing death

atural or societal forces that increase the mortality rate and shorten life expectancy after a population has already grown too large for its resources. [1]

• Famine: Severe food shortages resulting from overpopulation relative to agricultural output. [1, 2]

• Disease and Plague: Epidemics and widespread sickness thriving in crowded, unsanitary conditions.[1, 2]

• War: Violent conflicts driven by competition for scarce land and resources. [1, 2]

• Misery and Poverty: General destitution and high infant mortality among the lower classes

Preventive Checks (Malthus) —> preventing population from growing

are voluntary or conscious human actions that reduce the fertility rate and prevent people from having children. [1]

• Delayed Marriage: Pushing back the age of marriage to limit the number of children a couple can have.[1]

• Moral Restraint: Abstinence and chastity before marriage, which Malthus (as a cleric) advocated for the lower classes. [1, 2]

• Contraception and Birth Control: Methods viewed by Malthus with skepticism or moral disapproval, though modern applications fall under this category