THERE IS NO SUCH A THING LIKE SOCIETY!!
We'd definitely better say "community" or "institution" if you want to mention the macro environment where a cohort of individuals gathers into.
Human-being is social itself. There is no such a superstitious thing called society! Therefore, human-beings are social each other, so any institute such as a state or a corporation does not need to concern about the empty meaningless superstition called society!
If any instiute enforces individuals to be social by following their vision of sociality, it fails into the oppressive totalitarian serfdom which transforms majority of individual human-beings to beasts!
Only the best alternative policy is to leave individuals and their family alone to allow them naturally social themselves. All in all, the sociability of individuals is not a business of any institute and community!
Oh, I must note that I despise Burkean philosophy so much!
Burke said the tradition is a fundamental guidance of how human-beings should live. I know Burkean theory remains some freedom and liberty, but the idea of common sense guided by tradition is a burden on progress and liberty.
Although human-beings are social, but not capable to define what is a true natural law. Aristotle did not much mention about the tradition although Aristotle is a natural law theorist. Aristotle mentioned the natural law is invisible and difficult to define. Even some academic commentators claimed that although Aristotle said virture is a significant factor of human-beings he has never indicated virture as a moral objective.
By contrast, Burke seemed to insist that virture is an objective and derived from the tradition. But, using tradition as a moral guide line is a dangerous idea. As Bentham said the moral guide line should exist for the future not the past. Tradition, i.e. the past experience, might have been functional in the past, but never 100% significantly functional in the future. This guide line is not able to the existence level and the future optimum level of the pleasure and the pain for individuals. We are able to regress some past data sets and experiences to construct our future plan, but there is always an error in them! The errors derived from psychological senses and indoctrinating moral entreneurs should be omitted by civil action and people's party!
All in all, I declair to say that I am strongly against the statement "Society is the only true state of nature, and reason is to be conducted within tradition". Only the thing whose reason is to be conducted within tradition is a mal-functional guidance of miss-used moral entrepreneurship. It is waste of time to define society as there is no such a thing like society: There are only individuals and their family...!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tackling on criminal acts with the utilitarian philosophy
In terms of my consequentialist point of view, the legislation system should have provided the incentive which prevents individuals to commit a crime serious act. If there is a criminal act, there is often a derivative branch of the mischief of a criminal act. There is a raison d'etre of a criminal act. In order to decline the number and the quality of criminal acts, the priority is to tackle on the "cause" of crime.
We certainly need a negative sanction (i.e. punishment!!) which is measured owing to the equivalent pain to the pain a victim suffers from. "Mouth to mouth and teath to teach" method sounds uncivil but is certainly necessary and works for preventing some criminal acts. Some severe crimes tend not to decrease by this method according to the statitstics. But the system still need to remain this method in order to equate the pleasure and the pain of both sides. In order to decrease these severe crimes, which are not significantly correlated with the level of punishment, we need to tackle on the "derivative branch" of the mischief of these acts!
Some criminal acts need to be legal or decriminalised such as usage of some recreational drungs (in philosophy of law, it's called some categories of self-intoxication), ganbling, doing and buying prostitution because these acts bring pleasure and are possible to prevent the pain derived from these act by installing a proper legislation. Or, we need to provide individuals the "substitutions" of these goods and services like what Islamic society does.
The severe criminal acts such as murdering, hatred, conspiracy, and organised crime, need a severe punishment by either a public institution or individuals themselves. But, in order to reduce the cost and the derivative branch of the hatred, we need to tackle on the derivative branch of the mischief of the criminal acts...!
We certainly need a negative sanction (i.e. punishment!!) which is measured owing to the equivalent pain to the pain a victim suffers from. "Mouth to mouth and teath to teach" method sounds uncivil but is certainly necessary and works for preventing some criminal acts. Some severe crimes tend not to decrease by this method according to the statitstics. But the system still need to remain this method in order to equate the pleasure and the pain of both sides. In order to decrease these severe crimes, which are not significantly correlated with the level of punishment, we need to tackle on the "derivative branch" of the mischief of these acts!
Some criminal acts need to be legal or decriminalised such as usage of some recreational drungs (in philosophy of law, it's called some categories of self-intoxication), ganbling, doing and buying prostitution because these acts bring pleasure and are possible to prevent the pain derived from these act by installing a proper legislation. Or, we need to provide individuals the "substitutions" of these goods and services like what Islamic society does.
The severe criminal acts such as murdering, hatred, conspiracy, and organised crime, need a severe punishment by either a public institution or individuals themselves. But, in order to reduce the cost and the derivative branch of the hatred, we need to tackle on the derivative branch of the mischief of the criminal acts...!