🧩 Philosophy 2h ago · jchan

Society is a social construct, pace Arrow

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[Followup to: We live in a society]
For logical positivists, deeming something a "social construct" is like signing its death-warrant. But really all it means is that the Litany of Tarski doesn't apply. If there is no underlying reality to the thing, we are allowed to decide what we want it to do for us, and with our thoughts make it so.
We have money, so we don't need to barter; we have language, so we don't need to point-and-grunt; and if one of those things isn't doing its job well, it's with

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