Showing posts with label 網摘. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 網摘. Show all posts

09 April 2012

《羅爾斯與剝削》

到最後都只停留在理論層次,若果沒有人同意。當然如果有人想再知d 咩關於以下篇摘文,歡迎留言。或者會持續的做這方面的事情。頭痛。係咁。


The key question about whether exploitation is just by Rawls's principles, then, is whether the two principles permit private ownership of the means of production and whether they permit a generalized system of wage labor in which the labor time of the worker is purchased on the basis of a wage set by a competitive labor market. If so, then Marx would conclude that exploitation is compatible with the principles of justice; if not, then we have a basis for thinking that the two principles are powerful enough to rule out exploitation. 
Rawls is explicit in holding that laissez-faire capitalism is unjust. This is because of the difference principle. The difference principle mandates that the condition of the worker should be better than it would be without this system of capital and labor, which may entail transfer of wealth through taxation to bring the worker’s welfare up to that standard. Laissez-faire capitalism is not just, according to the two principles because it lacks fiscal and legislative means for transferring wealth to improve the condition of the least-well-off (see the discussion of a property-owning democracy in an earlier post). But if just institutions permit ownership of capital and generalized wage labor, then Marx would still regard this as a system of exploitation and surplus extraction. 
So the key question is whether the two principles of justice permit private property in the means of production and a system of wage labor. There are two plausible approaches we can take on this question, leading to different results.

The answer, it would appear, does not depend on the second principle of justice (the difference principle) but rather the first principle of justice (the liberty principle). This is Wilkerson's central point: does the liberty principle include protection of economic rights, including the right to own the means of production and the right to buy and sell labor power?
[...]

But perhaps the liberty principle doesn't in fact support these economic rights after all. This is Wilkerson's argument, and it is the basis for his claim that Rawls is more radical than we thought. And it is the view that Sam Freeman explores in greater depth in his book Rawls. In a nutshell, Freeman gives an extensive argument for concluding that Rawls does not include these economic rights under the liberty principle (the right to own and accumulate capital and the right to buy and sell labor time). Here is Freeman's position:
Then again, Rawls resembles Mill in holding that freedom of occupation and choice of careers are protected as a basic freedom of the person, but that neither freedom of the person nor any other basic liberty includes other economic rights prized by classical liberals, such as freedom of trade and economic contract. Rawls says that freedom of the person includes having a right to hold and enjoy personal property. He includes here control over one's living space and a right to enjoy it without interference by the State or others. The reason for this right to personal property is that, without control over personal possessions and quiet enjoyment of one's own living space, many of the basic liberties cannot be enjoyed or exercised. (Imagine the effects on your behavior of the high likelihood of unknowing but constant surveillance.) Moreover, having control over personal property is a condition for pursuing most worthwhile ways of life. But the right to personal property does not include a right to its unlimited accumulation. Similarly, Rawls says the first principle does not protect the capitalist freedom to privately own and control the means of production, or conversely the socialist freedom to equally participate in the control of the means of production (TJ, 54 rev.; PL, 338; JF, 114). (Kindle Locations 1239-1248).

Unlike John Locke, then, John Rawls does not accept the fundamental moral rights that give rise to capitalism as basic rights of liberty. If these rights are to be created within a just society, they must be governed by the difference principle. Or in more contemporary terms: Rawls and Nozick part ways on liberties even more fundamentally than they do on distributive justice (Anarchy, State, and Utopia).
If we accept Freeman's argument (and Wilkinson's) -- and I am inclined to -- then the answer to the question posed above is resolved. The two principles of justice are not apriori committed to the justice of the basic institutions of capitalism; and therefore Rawls's system is not forced to judge that exploitation is just. Or more affirmatively: exploitation is unjust.

28 January 2011

來點別人文字

又有一段時間沒有寫,倒是在面書寫了點東西。其實不就是因為無什麼好寫。讀完了Metapolitics,除了講民主一章,其他也讀不通,來來去去只見結論為不能將政治與國家(State 大階)混為一談,不然不是政治。而此論點如何發展卻不明白。讀法治那本也只到了一半,今天只好講近來讀到的網上文章。

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首先說歌詞。這樣唔咁沉重。《詞話詩說》是報章專欄,但作者也會貼在其blog 上。這是一個香港少有說詞的欄目,是其中一個不錯的參考。讀到梁偉詩寫黃偉文<苦瓜>有這麼一段背景:
〈陀飛輪〉的成功,不但為黃偉文陳奕迅的「成年男人玩具系列」劃上完美的句號,同時也為「為較成熟的聽眾創作歌曲」的創作動機,產生更強大的原動力。〈陀飛輪〉獲獎前後,網絡上亦出現了另一首黃偉文陳奕迅的全新派台「成熟歌曲」,也就是今回要談的〈苦瓜〉

記得自己也曾寫過相關觀察,當時就是<陀飛輪> 出在EP 的時候,當時從<陀>、<於心有愧>及<無人之境>引申出是一個「佬」在懺悔。如果加上黃偉文的成年男人玩具系列(跑車美酒相機金錶),此結論更加清楚。當然<於心有愧>是林夕的作品,與陳奕迅-黃偉文攜手塑造的成年(或者是成熟)男人可以說是無關。不過,從把<於>及玩具系列當成陳奕迅的自白,那麼就不難看出歌路上因為年紀增長而改變。

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另外想推介一個寫思方的博客。當初誤以為博主是港大的副教授(因為名字相同),原來應該是台灣念哲學的學生。文章有時候比較學術,但有時候也有些淺白而有趣的推介及介紹。例如講真理相對主義在邏輯上如何站不住腳的<凡事總是相對:真理相對主義的困窘>及講科學哲學獎拉卡托斯獎:「不用數字而重寫了牛頓重力理論大部份內容的 Hartry Field ,憑著這本 1980 的小書 Science Without Numbers: A Defence of Nominalism 也曾經奪得拉卡托斯獎。」

見到博主其他文章認真的綜合比較學術的書,確實難得。

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還看到一篇精彩絕倫的文章,是分析香港中產數字的。不過還是不想在此隨便引。

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菜園村那邊也是近期才開始留意。知道的不多,不過也摘一點吧:

朱凱迪事件
兩個版本比對見此
Hooky Lam: 菜園村清場事件

125明報社論
小丁:轉戴:回覆《明報》20110125 社論:為菜園說情理  (內含明報125社論及多方回應)

Galileo:菜園新村四評 (含「路權費」的發展及圖則)


我對路權的理解為一方(用家)借用另一方(借出者)的土地來進出用家的土地,此為路權(用法律專業名詞:地役權,因為奴役了借出者的土地)。明報那句「不過,由於路權費問題,村民與原地主爭議不下,事態進展遇到阻滯。」這是一個錯誤,如果用家已買了土地,與原地主又可來爭議?如果原地主有借出者的路權,那麼一係有連路權賣、一係唔賣、一係無寫明。又點會同原地主爭議?如果原地主本身無路權,那麼更加不存在與原地主的可能。明報的意思應該是與借出者爭議,這與其它消息相同。也就是說明報犯了一個低級錯誤。

接下來的應該是法律問題。此處十分不清楚,而按我所看到的是黃國桐律師說的該路因多年予村民使用已成公眾道路。我不知道這是否一個法律認可的理由。但應該還存在其他可能性。可惜,沒有更多資訊,如契約內容、當時三方的關係及原地主擁有時有路權與否。當然何生家族所帶來的法律問題比較吸引的。