Government sanction underwrites contracts even in large civilized societies
Evidence
As Hume (1978 [1739–40], 3.2.8, 546) says of contracts, if they “had only their own proper obligation, without the separate sanction of government, they wou’d have but little efficacy in [all large and civilized] societies. This separates the boundaries of our public and private duties, and shews that the latter are more dependant on the former, than the former on the latter.” Hobbes may have exaggerated the extent to which powerful institutional sanctions are required for grounding trust and promises, but he was not radically mistaken. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 834
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Directly engages the Hobbesian grounding the reader flagged in their reading purpose — Hardin here embraces Hobbes while tempering his exaggeration.
Broader Connections
- A legal contract channels stored political power toward private purposes
#expands(0.80) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 773 - Commerce requires liberty, contract security, trust, and justice
#corroborates(0.80) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1844 - Coercive government power depends on voluntary cooperation from many
#expands(0.75) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 998 - Personal trust becomes system trust under civilized conditions
#expands(0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 257