Many political thinking today, especially those affected by liberalism, is thinking about a clear distinction between the public and the private sector, and believes that the correct understanding of this should greatly affect our attitude towards human goods. For example, it is widely believed that the state may deal with human work in the "public" sphere but not in the "private sector". In public goods, Raymond Gauss offers special goods the deep defects of this thinking and calls for a more accurate approach.

Drawing on a series of colorful examples from the Old World, illustrates some of the many ways in which actions can actually be understood as general or special. Chapter I discusses Diogenes the Cynic, who contravenes the conventions on what should be public and what should be special, among other things, masturbation in the Athenian market.

Next comes an analysis of Julius Caesar's decision to challenge the Senate by crossing Rubicon with his army. In doing so, Caesar affirmed his dignity as a special person while acting in general.

Chapter III considers St. Augustine's retreat from public life to think in his own spiritual state.

In the fourth stage, Jayyus continues to look at recent liberal views, and particularly questions the common assumptions about the importance of public dialogue and the alleged unlimited potential of human beings to reach consensus. It is suggested that liberal concern to maintain, protect, even at a very high cost, is a "private area" for each patient.

He concludes that the politics and ethics of Hobbs and Nietzsche is a more realistic and useful way of modern liberalism to think about human goods. Ultimately, he warns, a simplistic understanding of privacy leads to simplistic ideas about what the state is and can not be justified in doing.

I want that book.