Paine

But you yourself frame your concept of 'statism' as a violation of a preexisting condition. It is at least as abstract as any idea employed by Locke.

Those political philosophers used the phrase 'state of nature' to distinguish it from life as a citizen with expressed rights within a state. They did...

Your description of a community formed through agreements amongst neighbors strongly resembles what Locke called the State of Nature. He takes up the ...

I don't think it would be partisan to note that Putin started the annexations with the hope of maintaining 'normal' relationships with Russia's trade ...

I grew up in a house where the red-lettered words of Jesus were distinguished from everything else. I get the claim for the centrality of those words ...

That is too simple of an explanation of what is going on but if that is the process, the Russians just blew their resources on a war game.

Explicit contracts are only possible through institutions established to recognize them. It seems you would have the discussion of what brought civic ...

Well said. It spells out what I was thinking in my statement upthread that insisting that there can be only one overriding purpose is to ignore the re...

As conceived of by Hobbes and Rousseau, the social contract is not an explicit agreement signed before participating in it. Rather, it is a condition ...

Hobbes and Rousseau developed their views from sharply different visions of the qualities of natural man before civic institutions existed. What is yo...

According to Hobbes, the state of nature is a war of each against all others. The need for authority is not in order to satisfy a compulsion that some...

Interesting survey. I was struck by how many times "none of the above" was the largest portion of responses. Looks like they need to add some more que...

Good overview of the nuclear threat element. The breakdown of how multiple tactical nukes would turn into a strategic threat makes sense. I was partic...

I did not mean to suggest it is simple. I was trying to relate how views of who is calling the shots shapes how negotiation is seen as possible. So th...

I wish this statement was not so broad. As I have said before, I would prefer the response to a tactical nuke be the enforcement of a no-fly zone by N...

Those who say NATO is imperial through the process of inducting new members depict Putin as the one who is being attacked.

It is the role of Ukraine in possible negotiations that has consumed so many pages of debate here. For those that view the conflict as principally a p...

One of the elements that could have made that de facto condition become normal is that back then, Putin was skillfully engaged with European powers to...

One of the things Arendt focused upon was how international visions of a world fueled many local events. And thus, her distinction between mutual ethn...

Having monitored this thread since its inception, I think the following axes of rotation are underway: The argument over whether, and to what extent, ...

Being an anonymous source, it could have been intended to be leaked or done without authorization. If it was the latter, the motive could have been a ...

Washington Post has a similar report. It is unlikely that the leaked report was an anti-war statement when surrounded by all the celebration of the st...

It is a break in established policy for either of the sources to speak of it. If it was an anonymous senior official, that could be an intended leak. ...

Yes, that would have been breaking news everywhere if confirmed. My second thought after reading the claim is that the Ukraine forces have been very d...

Where is the verification of the following claim in the article: "The Ukrainian special forces immediately admitted having carried out the attack to t...

Surely, there must be a distinction between listing motives for why somebody might have committed a crime and that such an event went down. That the s...

You are the one who presented it as a fact when it was only an opinion about the matter. Now that you are not presenting it as a fact, it doesn't mean...

Got it. You are merely speculating.

Asking again why you are convinced of this.

I was not aware that had been established as a fact.

In what sense has this happened? No Ukrainians were mentioned in this proposal. So the negotiations you promote means cutting off their efforts. You a...

The sound of one hand clapping empties the air.

On what basis do you make this bold claim?

I don't understand. Which territory and what ideology are you referring to?

I prefer the present approach toward minimizing the scope of the war. Your impatience would destroy billions of lives along with the ecosystem.

While NATO can help (without fighring directly) countries outside of the alliance to withstand aggression, Article 5 only applies to defense from atta...

One irony of NATO participation is that each nation is tied to a collective force and is not free to fight unilaterally. The conditions for Article 5 ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIhoX8fu_ZE

What constitutes the condition of "until proven otherwise"? For example, for one who does not see any gap between Heidegger's philosophy and his polit...

Yes. I wonder how they would have reacted if told beforehand.

Whatever the overall intention of the operation, this report presents a sharp contrast to the U.S. doctrine on Joint Forcible Entry Operations. The em...

If that is the case, your observations cannot be supported as evidence by appeal to any resource.

The article is helpful in showing how the misfortune of war will play out in Russian society. A countervailing perspective from the game of Risk under...

Another smoking accident has happened, this time on the Kerch bridge.

I figure future accounts will confirm your view. All airborne infantry missions are very risky. Many have failed. Until that time when more has been r...

I don't know, linking to a source that says it does not know does not inculcate confidence.

I would like to reassert my previous point that arguments about the intentions of the Hostumel operation are not evidence for or against a 'feint'. An...

What is your source for this?

Yes, I see the dance between claims regarding particular circumstances. My point is only to say that once one has retreated from arguing what the actu...

For Tzeentch, the question of intent and planning seems to be on hold until the day documents and investigations can prove one view against the other....