I like philosophy, especially arguments about philosophy. And if you throw in a little religion or politics, things really get fun. But in the end, I’m a practical kind of guy. I can’t be bothered with any philosophical musing that can’t be brought to bare on how I live my life. Here is a very simple example.

There is an oft repeated quote about the size of government: “That government is best which governs least,” attributed to Thomas Jefferson though it appears in none of his writings. What exactly does this mean? The least amount of government is no government; thus, it literally extols anarchy. Assuming that most who repeat this quote are not promoting anarchy (it is, after all, a part of the Republican Party oath), what is meant by this phrase? It is akin to saying “I believe in small government” without having to be bothered with defining what is meant by “small”. Thus, it claims to represent a philosophy, but without committing the adherent to any course of action. If no government and an all consuming government are both bad options (and surely all rational people must think that they are), there must be some optimum size of government, so that more or less government than this optimum is detrimental to the general welfare of the populous. It should be our goal to find the optimal level of government. How is this optimum to be determined? How, in fact, is the size of government to be measured? What criteria are best used when defining the benefits and detriments of government? These questions are not answered, and in fact not even asked, when one simply repeats the fine sounding but meaningless phrase “That government is best which governs least.”