Money: A General Purpose Social Utility
In June this year (2019), my attention was drawn to the publication of a new book by Tony Lawson The Nature of Social Reality: Issues in Social Ontology (London and New York; Routledge). I wrote to him to introduce myself, and express my interest. I did so, because this is what I have been working on since about 2005. My book The Metaphysics of Scientific Realism (2009) was an argument for the acceptance of scientific realism as a First Philosophy, i.e. as a foundation for all other philosophies. The 2012 book, Social Humanism; A New Metaphysics was my first serious attempt to create an adequate, scientifically realistic, metaphysics for the social sciences. It dealt mainly with human nature, and with the social structure of human societies. The anthropological evidence is that all human tribes, even the most primitive, have social structures that define the roles and responsibilities of their members. These structures generally aim to minimise conflict within, and promote the interests of the tribe or nation without. I call it the de facto social contract of the society.
