Heck, I almost cried seeing somebody else making a reference to Rawls on the bloggernacle.

I do not have much time, but I tend to think that our idea of a state of nature would be closer to Rousseau. Of course, I prefer Rousseau over Hobbes or Locke. In terms of social contract theory, I think that the idea of a council in heaven is closest to Rawls’ idea of an original position behind a veil of ignorance. More of a mind exercise than a prehistoric gathering of people in savage nature.

I think that we have a much more positive view of human nature, yet many of my students are closer to Augustine with his pessimistic view of human nature.

Anyways, thanks for the post.

I believe that government is intrinsically evil, and a product of man’s fallen state. Necessary perhaps, because man is fallen, but still evil. And good fruit doesn’t come from an evil tree.

If men were not fallen there would be no need for government- and any involvement of government soon corrupts whatever it touches. (The main reason I am not so fond of faith based initiatives is not because I worry about the churches influencing government, but because I worry the government will corrupt the churches.)

Thus when I was younger and had a more idealistic view of man (what you call Smithian) I opposed liberal policies on the grounds that enlisting the government in the perfection of the man is sort of like taking poison as medicine. I supported conservative libertarianism as a slow, but far less dangerous method of achieving good results.

As I grown older, and become more cynical about human nature, my original view has only hardened. Many of the experiences I have had with the baser nature of man has been connected with a form of government. Mainly this has led me to become a grumpy (as opposed to happy) conservative who is rather impatient and no longer bothers to try and appeal to liberals, as they are all apparently blind to the way most of the problems they want the government to fix are either created by current government policies, or are already being addressed by the government in a way that just makes things worse.

I’m still pretty libertarian, but I understand straight up conservative positions far more than I used to.

I tend to see us as fallen beings with basically good desires. But I recognize that there are a lot of valid answers to this question. It’s yet another contradiction that we’re called upon to wrestle with, and, assuming we give it a good go, be transformed by. Perhaps the question is only answerable subjectively in the end. The answer I gave, for example, is how I see myself.

That being said, I am not sure that my view on this drives my politics. I am now a registered democrat and Obama supporter, but for most of my life I was a registered independent who voted mostly for the GOP. My views on human nature are largely the same as they always have been, although my political leanings have changed.