The use of logical impossibilities makes rational discourse impossible. A and non-A cannot both be true. Everybody cannot have an income higher than the median or the average. Nobody can consume if nobody produces (including do-it-yourself). Everybody cannot consume more if everybody produces less. You can’t be inclusive without admitting the non-inclusive in your inclusive set. And so on.
There also exist praxeological impossibilities which make any rational discourse about society impossible. I take “praxeology” to mean the logic of human action in relation to individual incentives. For example, you cannot consume something that you want but cannot produce yourself, except if somebody else is motivated to produce it for you through exchange or out of benevolence.
Another example of praxeological impossibility—this one relevant to the current predicaments of a certain American governor: If anybody accused of “inappropriate behavior” by somebody must immediately resign, it would be impossible for anybody to hold a “position” for any predetermined length of time longer than the time it takes to formulate an accusation. The reason is that anybody who wants somebody to resign would only have to accuse him of “inappropriate behavior.” (On the other hand, of course, if charges of real assault, as opposed to the chameleonic “inappropriate behavior,” were not investigated and, if revealed founded, prosecuted, potential criminals would have incentives incompatible with a free and peaceful society.)
READER COMMENTS
nobody.really
Mar 17 2021 at 12:27pm
…except in Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average….
Pierre Lemieux
Mar 17 2021 at 2:51pm
Are you sure it wasn’t nearby in Holdingford?
nobody.really
Mar 18 2021 at 5:30pm
Nah. In Holdingford, all the children are above median. A few curve-busting students make the average out of reach for some kids.
Daniel Kian Mc Kiernan
Mar 20 2021 at 12:34am
I’ve a few miscellaneous points.
I can quickly think of one case in which charges of sexual impropriety evaporated after their target was neutralized. And I note that, more recently, the main-stream of the media walked away from charges after they failed to prevent an appointment, though if those charges could be proved then the story woukd have become a still more rattling story after the appointment.
Different classes of action require different standards of proof. When we look only at legal action, we see a distinction between the standard of proof required in criminal law and that required in civil law. (A division that ought perhaps to be finer grained!) I submit that, when we aren’t making use of law, there are further differences. For example, private, untransmittable evidence reasonably comes to bear when we form opinions and may inform our public declarations, though such evidence should not inform the votes of jurors.
In some ways, it would be desirable to strengthen sanctions against those who bring false charges of sexual impropriety. But wicked people will resist the institutionalization of sanctions, and good people will have qualms. The qualms of the good will be in the possibility that the sanctions will sometimes be misapplied to people who actually have been victims of sexual impropriety. And the wicked relish their present power to wound with false charges.
Pierre Lemieux
Mar 20 2021 at 10:50am
Daniel: Your last point is especially interesting. It illustrates the fact that sometimes, at least in the short run, between wicked and good people, between liberalism and Leviathan, the combat is often unequal. The fact that Leviathan’s agents and supporters call themselves “liberals” doesn’t make it more equal.
Fred Foldvary
Mar 20 2021 at 6:15pm
Natural resources are consumed but not produced.
Pierre Lemieux
Mar 22 2021 at 10:00am
Fred: Interesting point, but its application seems limited. Virtually all natural resources need further production before being turned into consumer goods or services. Think of oil. Even low-hanging fruits require some production, such as picking them up. To be useful for anything else than contemplation, land and the milky way require production. Even contemplation requires some production through travelling and telescopes (and monasteries).
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