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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    The ruler can direct the people's will toward whatever th... — Carmelics
    Home/Democracy & Governance
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The ruler can direct the people's will toward whatever the ruler desires

    Democracy & Governance
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The people desire ranks and emoluments and fear punishments and penalties
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    • 2.The ruler controls the dispensation of ranks, emoluments, punishments, and penalties
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    • 3.Controlling what people desire and fear allows the ruler to guide their will
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.People's desires extend beyond material rewards and punishments to include dignity, meaning, and social recognition that rulers cannot fully control.
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    • 2.Rousseau's distinction between amour de soi and amour propre demonstrates that human motivation includes irreducible drives for esteem that external incentives cannot substitute.
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    • 3.When extrinsic controls dominate, they crowd out intrinsic motivations, producing compliance without genuine will-direction, undermining the claim's core premise.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Mencius argued that people possess innate moral sprouts (四端) which generate autonomous moral judgments resistant to purely external manipulation.
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    • 2.A ruler who directs will only through reward and punishment produces strategic compliance, not directed will, making the claim equivocate between behavioral control and genuine volitional guidance.
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    Topics

    Democracy & GovernanceSocial Contract

    Related

    A ruler who directs will only through reward and punishment produces strategic c...Controlling what people desire and fear allows the ruler to guide their willMencius argued that people possess innate moral sprouts (四端) which generate auto...People's desires extend beyond material rewards and punishments to include digni...
    +4 moreShow less
    Rousseau's distinction between amour de soi and amour propre demonstrates that h...The people desire ranks and emoluments and fear punishments and penaltiesThe ruler controls the dispensation of ranks, emoluments, punishments, and penal...When extrinsic controls dominate, they crowd out intrinsic motivations, producin...

    Similar

    The ruler can govern the people effectively89%Controlling what people desire and fear allows the ruler to guide thei...86%A good ruler will display restraint and moderation despite divinely ma...81%The ruler can investigate and identify the people's likes and dislikes80%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: chinese-legalism
    View source passageHide passage
    Human beings have likes and dislikes; hence, the people can be ruled. The ruler must investigate likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes are the root of rewards and penalties. The disposition of the people is to like ranks and emoluments and to dislike punishments and penalties. The ruler sets up the two in order to guide the people’s will and to establish whatever he desires. (Shang jun shu 9: 65; Book of Lord Shang 9.3)
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit