Nature

There is only one way to measure the success of a theory, and that is to test it against nature. And with nature, I mean all things external to us, including things that we have invented and built ourselves, such as buildings and institutions, and laws. By theory I mean any hypothesis about the way things, institutions and laws should be constructed, so as to give a desired effect.

Tested against nature, those theories that deviate most from the actual order of things will do worse than those theories that match the external order more correctly. The best theory will always deliver the best result over time. Not necessarily immediately, but over time, things that have been built on assumptions deviating from nature will do worse than those that are built on assumptions that fit well with nature.

Nature is by definition impossible to know exactly, since it is external to us. We know that Newton was pretty right about physics, but Einstein was closer to the truth. However, even his theory will one day be replaced by another one that includes more, and explains more still. Tested against nature, we know that Newton was lacking in certain parts of his theories, and that Einstein could explain more things better. However, we also know that there are things that neither Newton nor Einstein can explain in their theories, so there is still room for improvement.

Nature is not just the world of external objects, but includes human nature. No one person is in a position to describe human nature exactly, so in this way, even human nature is an external quantity, open for theories and scientific investigation. And human nature is in fact under continuous testing in the world of trade, politics and everyday human interaction.

Every law that is enacted and every policy that is carried out is in fact an experiment, and the policies that are in accordance with nature will give good results and a prosperous people and society, while those policies that deviate from nature will result in poverty, violence, apathy or some other undesired effect.

Let us therefore agree on this. That nature, and not man, is the measure of all things. And let us proceed to investigate past and present political problems, propose solutions, make predictions and test these against historical facts so that we can find a set of principles that we can use as guidelines for building society.

What is the nature of mankind, and which politics will bring out the best in us?

Let us look at history and learn.