http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/locke.htm
--- excerpt ---
"Since it is the understanding that sets man above the rest of
sensible beings, and gives him all the advantage and dominion
which he has over them; it is certainly a subject, even for its
nobleness, worth our labour to inquire into. The understanding,
like the eye, while it makes us see and perceive all other things,
takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it
at a distance and make it its own object. But whatever be the
difficulties that lie in the way of this inquiry; whatever it be
that keeps us so much in the dark to ourselves; sure I am that all
the light we can let in upon our minds, all the acquaintance we
can make with our own understandings, will not only be very
pleasant, but bring us great advantage, in directing our thoughts
in the search of other things. "
_Essay_, John Locke
excerpt:
...In Two Treatises of Government he has two purposes in view: to
refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the Monarch,
as it had been put forward by Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, and to
establish a theory which would reconcile the liberty of the citizen
with political order.
...
Although there is little direct reference to Hobbes, Locke seems
to have had Hobbes in mind when he argued that the doctrine of
absolute monarchy leaves sovereign and subjects in the state of
nature towards one another. The constructive doctrines which are
elaborated in the second treatise became the basis of social and
political philosophy for generations.
***Labor is the origin and justification of property***;
contract or consent is the ground of government and fixes its
limits. Behind both doctrines lies the idea of the independence of
the individual person. The state of nature knows no government; but
in it, as in political society, men are subject to the moral law,
which is the law of God. Men are born free and equal in rights.
Whatever a man "mixes his labour with" is his to use. Or, at least,
this was so in the primitive condition of human life in which there
was enough for all and "the whole earth was America." Locke sees
that, when men have multiplied and land has become scarce, rules are
needed beyond those which the moral law or law of nature supplies.
But the origin of government is traced not to this economic
necessity, but to another cause. The moral law is always valid, but
it is not always kept. In the state of nature all men equally have
the right to
***punish transgressors***:
civil society originates when, for the better administration of the
law, men agree to delegate this function to certain officers. Thus
***government is instituted by a "social contract"***;
its powers are limited, and they involve reciprocal obligations;
moreover, they can be modified or rescinded by the authority which
conferred them. Locke's theory is thus no more historical than
Hobbes's. It is a rendering of the facts of constitutional government
in terms of thought, and it served its purpose as a justification of
the Revolution settlement in accordance with the ideas of the time.
...
"The business of laws, is not to provide for the truth of
opinions, but for the safety and security of the commonwealth,
and of every particular man's goods and person. And so it ought
to be. For truth certainly would do well enough, if she were once
left to shift for herself. She seldom has received, and I fear
never will receive, much assistance from the power of great men,
to whom she is but rarely known, and more rarely welcome. She is
not taught by laws, nor has she any need of force, to procure her
entrance into the minds of men. Errors, indeed, prevail by the
assistance of foreign and borrowed succors. But if truth makes
not her way into the understanding by her own light, she will be
but the weaker for any borrowed force violence can add to her. "
_Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes_(?), John Locke
...
--- end ---
more from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Property rights: http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/p/property.htm
-
Social contract: http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/s/soc-cont.htm
--------------------
On 8 Jun 2001, at 9:40, Khedr, Waleed wrote:
> If any one is having a problem with that then I guess they want to be the
> center of the universe and I'd suggest them to get help!
...
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