Political Philosophy and Humpty Dumptyism

Complicating debates in Political Philosophy over the status of the 'state of Nature' is equivocation. In some cases, 'Nature' is synonymous with 'Physical World', and, hence, 'Natural' is contrasted with 'Metaphysical'. In others, it denotes a condition of original Innocence, and, hence, 'Natural' is contrasted with 'Artificial'. In the latter case, 'Artificial' has a derogatory connotation, but, in the former, it can be ameliorative. So, for example, in Kantianism, 'Natural' is of the first type, to which the artifice of Politics is an imperfect corrective. But, in Rousseauism, 'Natural' is of the second type, so the artifice of Politics is corruptive. Common to the two types is the Humpty Dumpty pre-Fall vs. Fallen paradigm, with the state of Nature as Fallen in the first case, and pre-Fallen in the second. In contrast, Theories that do not implicate 'Nature' in Humpty Dumptyism--Aristotelianism, Evolvementalism, possibly Spinozism--have less trouble defending the constructive role of Political activity in Human development. More generally, these considerations further expose the inadequacy ofTheorizing that abstracts the Political sphere from more comprehensive Philosophical, i. e. Systematic, concerns.