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Book
Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy
(2017)
  • Karl Widerquist
  • Grant McCall, Tulane University of Louisiana
Abstract
This is an early version of this book with lots of typos (left up for reference).


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http://oapen.org/search?identifier=625284

Why do political philosophers write so much about prehistory but do such little research on it? The state of nature, the origin of property, the genesis of government, and the primordial nature of war and inequality are perennial favourite topics in political philosophy, but their use is often ambiguous. Are these merely illustrative examples? If so, what do they illustrate? If not, what claims to they make about prehistory. Does the best available evidence from the fields of archaeology and anthropology support or conflict with those claims?
 
This book presents an anthropological critique of philosophy, examining political theories to show how—despite significant equivocation—the most influential justifications of government and of private property rely on the seldom-questioned empirical premise that everyone in a society with a government and/or a private property rights system is better off than anyone could be in a society without those institutions. It presents convincing evidence that much of what we think we know about stateless peoples comes not from scientific investigation, but from the imagination of philosophers.


This version is an early draft of the book. It is not exactly the same as the published version. I post it here to get feedback from my friends and colleagues. If you want to cite or quote it, please check the published version and point all references to that version:
 
Karl Widerquist and Grant S. McCall. Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, January 2017


Keywords
  • Social Contract,
  • Contractarianism,
  • Contractualism,
  • Property Rights,
  • Libertarianism,
  • Propertarianism,
  • Inequality,
  • Freedom,
  • Hobbes,
  • Locke,
  • Rousseau,
  • Property,
  • Proviso,
  • Lockean proviso,
  • State of nature
Publication Date
2017
Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Citation Information
Karl Widerquist and Grant S. McCall Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, January 2017