BarkellWH -> RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (Jan. 1 2014 15:44:11)
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quote:
The thing I wonder about is the cave men didn't live very long. I imagine their short life span on average was more a function of their fighting amongst themselves than their diet. To quote Thomas Hobbes from his work "Leviathan." "In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently, not culture of the earth, no navigation, nor the use of commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." He was writing of man in the so-called "state of nature," without a social contract to curb violent, anti-social behavior. I assume that Hobbes' quote would pretty well sum up the era in which the cave men lived. Cheers, Bill
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