03 SEP 2011 by ideonexus

 Science Laws are Intrinsic, Not Heirarchical

In science, law is not a rule imposed from without, but an expression of an intrinsic process. The laws of the lawgiver are impotent beside the laws of human nature, as to his disillusion many a lawgiver has discovered.
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A quote from Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt about the emergent nature of scientific laws, which are not imposed from an authority, but come from within nature.

23 JUL 2011 by ideonexus

 The Difference Between Society and Government

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, bu...
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"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness..." Paine argues that government is put in place to protect us from our baser selves.

12 APR 2011 by ideonexus

 The Natural Law Argument

We now find that a great many things we thought were natural laws are really human conventions. You know that even in the remotest depths of stellar space there are still three feet to a yard. That is, no doubt, a very remarkable fact, but you would hardly call it a law of nature. And a great many things that have been regarded as laws of nature are of that kind. On the other hand, where you can get down to any knowledge of what atoms actually do, you will find they are much less subject to l...
  1  notes

Many of the things we consider natural laws are really just human conventions.