GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

36 ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE GREEKS
therefore, conventional. But conceive of society as that
which is an essential condition of human nature, ideologic-
* '
ally regarded, realizing itself, and society isjust as natural "
as your alleged state of nature. In fact it is more natural,
since men in a state of nature, if ever there was such a
state, were not fully men. But if the foundation of your
case, which is the amorality of an alleged pre-social state
of nature is unsound, the superstructure, that man is
naturally amoral and is constrained to morality only by
fear and convention, falls to the ground.
At this point a further question suggests itself. If the
Glauconian view of human nature is the right one, how,
one is entitled to ask, is the existence of society to be
explained at all? For on Glaucon's premises nobody could
ever have co-operated with anybody else, because nobody
would ever have been willing to trust anybody else.
It is no answer to the question to say that, while trustful
co-operation is not natural to man, it is nevertheless found
to pervade the relationships of men in society, because
men in society have agreed to forgo their natural aggressiveness
and to co-operate with their fellows as a result of the
contract on which society is based; for it is the making of
the contract which is in question, and the making of the
contract presupposes a willingness to trust one another on
the part of those consenting to participate in it. Now such
a willingness and the trustingness and trustworthiness
it pre-supposes must have existed prior to the contract
which was only rendered possible by reason of the fact
that they existed. They could not, therefore, have been
the products of it. The inference seems to be that, ifGlaucon
is right, the contract to form society could never have been
made.
That Society is Natural to Man. What follows? That
some form of social organization among human beings must
be postulated from the first; or rather, from the very begin-
ning of the period at which they may first legitimately
be called human. Whether Neanderthal man lived in