When the analysis of slavery by Charles Darwin and John Locke are brought forth, both share a common stance excluding one solitary indisposition. For John Locke’s view, though similar in nature, portrays from a hypocritical perspective. Although both exemplify their views on equality, Charles Darwin observes slaveries position in nature, while John Locke observes its position as a mean of punishment.
Charles Darwin is a devout abolitionist, such views may have portrayed his writings of evolution. For his beliefs revolve around universal common decent, his theory that all races and species derived from a similar ancestor. A theory that developed during his study of Galapagos Finches, where he found that the beaks of thirteen different Finches, though closely related, are suited solely to the food in such species environment: an adaption of natural selection. Although, Darwin’s observation of Galapagos Finches impacted his opposition on slavery, it had no comparison to the Beagle Voyage. For when he set sail off the coast of Brazil he illustrated his sorrow writing, “I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance” (Darwin 496). This is not a dispute that the scientific observation in which Charles Darwin examined in the Galapagos Islands does not affect his views in on slavery, but that his personal views may have p...
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... history shall be discouraged. Often forcing him to not categorize species into higher and lower forms of life, but seeing people as equal common ancestors.
After considering both oppositions on slavery, it is with ease to state that the ideals of Charles Darwin demonstrate the true rights of the people, with his simple view that all people were created equally. Thus illustrating that the views of John Locke are hypocritical in nature, for he believes in equality, but only when it is involved directly with the punishment of an individual.
Works Cited
Darwin, Charles, and David Quammen. On the Origin of Species. New York: Sterling, 2008. 349. Print.
Darwin, Charles. The Voyage of the Beagle. New York: Harper, 1959. 496. Print.
Locke, John. Two Treaties of Government. New York: Legal Classics Library, 1994. 15+. Print.
Both Aristotle's “Politics” and Jean Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality address the natural right and superiority of man and his subsets. In his piece, Aristotle discusses the emotional feeling of superiority, while Rousseau discusses the more logistic aspects. Together, their writing begs the question of the morality of slavery. Aristotle seems more willing to accept slavery as a natural creation by humans, however, in the end both of their pieces show the immorality and abnormality of slavery.
Post, D. G. (2001, 07 02). Temple Universtiy. Retrieved 07 07, 2010, from Words Fitly Spoken: http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/dpost/slavery.PDF
The argument of whether or not humans evolved from monkeys is constantly tossed around in our society with the emergence of more and more scientific discoveries. Evolution across such a broad spectrum is known as macroevolution, or changes that happen at or above the species level. Both popular and academic discourses debate the religious and moral issues associated with macroevolution and its propositions. The main person behind the idea of evolution was Charles Darwin who theorized that everything comes from a common ancestor. In the magazine article “Was Darwin Wrong?” featured in a 2004 issue of National Geographic, David Quammen discusses whether or not Darwin’s findings in evolution theory were correct. This article was targeted for
Bowler, Peter J. Evolution: The History of an Idea. London: University of California Press, 1989.
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe”( Douglass). This famous quote epitomizes the philosophies of Frederick Douglass, in which he wanted everyone to be treated with dignity; if everyone was not treated with equality, no one person or property would be safe harm. His experience as a house slave, field slave and ship builder gave him the knowledge to develop into a persuasive speaker and abolitionist. In his narrative, he makes key arguments to white abolitionist and Christians on why slavery should be abolished. The key arguments that Frederick Douglass tries to vindicate are that slavery denies slaves of their identity, slavery is also detrimental for the slave owner, and slavery is ungodly.
Therefore, I argue that the Declaration of Independence do contradict slavery with humanity and laws in society. First, Charles Langston, a free Black man, notifies a court about African American human right in according to the Fugitive Slave Law. It implies that African American is not free under any circumstance; it states that Whites have the right to place them into captivity. African Americans lack rights, and this law,
In Aristotle's "Justifying Slavery" and Seneca's "On Master and Slave," the two authors express their opposing sentiments on the principles of slavery. While Aristotle describes slavery as predestined inferiority, evidenced greatly by physical attributes, Seneca emphasizes the importance of "philosophical" freedom as opposed to physical freedom. (p. 58). The authors' contrasting views are disclosed in their judgments on the morality of slavery, the degree of freedom all people possess at birth, and the balance of equality between a slave and his master.
The term slave is defined as a person held in servitude as the chattel of another, or one that is completely passive to a dominating influence. The most well known cases of slavery occurred during the settling of the United States of America. From 1619 until July 1st 1928 slavery was allowed within our country. Slavery abolitionists attempted to end slavery, which at some point; they were successful at doing so. This paper will take the reader a lot of different directions, it will look at slavery in a legal aspect along the lines of the constitution and the thirteenth amendment, and it will also discuss how abolitionists tried to end slavery. This paper will also discuss how slaves were being taken away from their families and how their lives were affected after.
In a state of nature, each man, as the possessor of reason and free will, is cognitively independent and equal, and so, by implication, politically independent and equal (Braman 07). Locke knew that men were there own learning tools within themselves. Not only did they learn from there mistakes, which was known for centuries, but, they also grew from one another and took what they needed for there own well mental development (Braman 09) Just like mankind has been doing for as long as anyone can remember, they have been working there owns ways of life out for themselves and to learn from one another and not from someone or something telling you how you should be living.
Darwin, Charles. From The Origin of Species. New York: P.F. Collier and Son Corporation, 1937. 71-86; 497-506.
In The Social Contract philosophers John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau discuss their differences on human beings’ place of freedom in political societies. Locke’s theory is when human beings enter society we tend to give up our natural freedom, whereas Rousseau believes we gain civil freedom when entering society. Even in modern times we must give up our natural freedom in order to enforce protection from those who are immoral and unjust.
Mayr, Ernst. Populations, Species, and Evolution: An Abridgment of Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1970.
Evolution and The Origin of Species. (2013). In Biology (OpenStax College ed., pp. 485-510). Houston: Rice
Hare says in order to show the wrongfulness of slavery, the world has to see slavery as what is actually is and he conveys this through examples of historical context. Hare’s defense of utilitarianism is that this doctrine is moral reasoning that can be used to show and prove what is wrong with slavery, instead of simply just showing dissent and spouting out cries of unjust.
- Hyman, Stanley Edgar. Darwin For Today. New York: The Viking Press, 1963, p. 252.