Your political philosophy and favorite philosopher

admin: You said this:
The reason people are valuable is because they are people.
How do you know this? The only way for this to be true is to assume that this identity of being a "person" is an independent reality and this independent reality has inherent objective worth. Even by accepting this, we still can't conclude that therefore society ought to create societal institutions that give social and political equality to all citizens by birthright.

Bi0Hazard: Right, those are the premises on which I guide my beliefs on the kind of moral society we want to create. I don't agree that the worth need be objective but certainly that people exist, and that personhood is a kind of value are premises of my moral argument. Social and political institutions just mirror what we believe about people. If we think some persons are superior, then those institutions will value people differently. It follows naturally from the assumptions we hold about people.

admin: The worth does need to be objective otherwise there is no inherent worth and therefore no justification.

Bi0Hazard: So you think things need to be objective to be inherent? Why?

admin: Yes, because that is what being inherent requires, it requires to be actual.

Bi0Hazard: Subjective is actual. It's just not always the same.

admin: It is nothing more than what you think, so it isn't actual.

Bi0Hazard: ... and that can't be inherent?

I disagree strongly either way. Everyone's reality is actual for them. It's profoundly limiting to suggest that any one "actual" reality should be greater than all others because we all see the world through our own personal lens with our own personal bias.

admin: Nobody has their own "actual" reality. There is an objective world that is independent of our subjective perspective.

Bi0Hazard: How do you know?

admin: I don't truly know, it is just that experience has most successfully demonstrated the objective natural world and its consistency (science).

Bi0Hazard: Consistent according to our subjective observations... that doesn't mean it's true. It just means our subjective perceptions have some regularity to them.

admin: Well anyways, Marx is cool.

Bi0Hazard: Oh? I thought he went out of fashion about a century ago?

admin: Many of his ideas are relevant today. I like some of it.

Bi0Hazard: Sure but I think it's largely been modernized. Things have changed.

admin: Yes, but Marxist ideas remain important. A favorite economist of mine, Richard D. Wolff, is labeled a "Marxian" economist.