Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Originalism and More Perfect Union

The concept of General Welfare is open to two interpretations: Associationist, i. e. the sum of individual welfares, and Organicist, i. e. the welfare of a Whole of Parts.  But, the phrase from the Preamble, "a more perfect union", seems decisive between them.  For, it asserts that the Constitution is an improvement over the Articles of Confederation, insofar as it supplants the association of States prescribed by the latter, with a federal body that unifies them.  So, by "general welfare", the Founding Fathers likely similarly intend a condition to which Benthamist-Capitalist concepts are inadequate, regardless of the insistence of Originalists.

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