Preface

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction


2. Modern political philosophy and prehistoric anthropology: Some preliminary issues


3. The Hobbesian hypothesis: How a colonial prejudice became an essential premise in most popular justification of government sovereignty


4. Locke employs the Hobbesian hypothesis: How very much the same colonial prejudice became an essential premise in the most popular justification of private property rights


5. The Hobbesian hypothesis in seventeenth century political theory


6. The Hobbesian hypothesis in nineteenth century political theory


7. The Hobbesian Hypothesis in Contemporary Political Theory


8. The Violence Hypothesis in Anthropology


9. Nasty & Brutish? Evidence for and against the violence hypothesis


10. Are you better off now that you were 12,000 years ago? An empirical assessment of the Hobbesian Hypothesis


11. Implications: What's left of contractarianism and propertarianism without the Hobbesian hypothesis?

Index

Online Appendix:

• Appendix to Chapter 2


• Appendix to Chapter 5


• Appendix to Chapter 6


• Appendix to Chapter 7


• Appendix to Chapter 8

Uncovering the ways in which modern philosophers perpetuate prehistoric myths Why are stories about the Stone Age so common in political philosophy? 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 what role do these accounts play in philosophical argument? Does the best available evidence from the fields of archaeology and anthropology support or conflict with the stories being passed on by political philosophers? 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 people in a society with a government and/or private property rights system are better off than people in societies 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 or the prejudice of past colonialists. Karl Widerquist is an Associate Professor of political philosophy at SFS-Qatar, Georgetown University. Grant S. McCall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University.

Karl Widerquist is Associate Professor in Political Theory at Georgetown University.

Grant S. McCall is Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Tulane University.