One authority or power would set the laws and everyone in turn would follow them. John Locke believed in constitutionalism, which is defined as, “a government in which power is distributed and limited by a system of laws that must be obeyed by the rulers.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/constitutionalism). He believed that In conclusion, both Hobbes and Locke theories were influential in politics. They both examined the “state of nature” of man without any government and that in this state that all men are equal. They also both believed that this created risk.
English philosopher Tomas Hobbes in his book the Leviathan described an ideal situation in which the government should coexist with the people. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2013). Hobbes described that a social contract or agreement existed where men abandoned a “state of nature” to form modern societies. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2013). French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau further expanded on Hobbes’s social contract theory by stating that, “That the general will establishes a reciprocal duty of rights, privileges, and responsibilities as the basis of the state.”(The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2013).
When Charles II formed a colony in America, he gave Locke the duty of writing up a constitution. Later this constitution would become known as the Carolina Constitution and would be used by America’s Founding Fathers as a model for their Constitution. In the constitution he included ideas from the Westminster Confession as well as principals such as the Creator-Redeemer distinction (the idea that the government can control men’s outward behavior but should let God rule their hearts) and Liberty of Conscience (the idea that it is wrong for the government to force citizens to act against their consciences). Furthermore he included religious freedom and granted protection of the law to people 18 or older who were members of a church or claimed to be a believer in a higher power.
These writings were eventually successful and both exerted a vast influence when the American revolution began in the seventeen hundreds. These works became part of English and American thought through the greater part of the eighteenth century. Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1690) became a well-known writing. Locke attacked the theory of diving right of kings and the nature of the state as conceived by the English philosopher and political theorist Thomas Hobbes. He did not believe that a king should become king because ‘God told him to be,’ but rather... ... middle of paper ... ...contract.
He was an English philosopher, economist, a prominent publicist, a logician, an ethical theorist, as well as an exponent of Utilitarianism (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "John Stuart Mill"). The idea of this essay, is to compare and contrast both Bentham’s and Mill’s theories on utilitarianism. Along with the comparison and contrast, we will be looking at the benefits, and the dangers of each theory. Jeremy Bentham was the eldest of the two being born in 1748. He was born in London, England and at a young age began to read latin and write in both latin and greek.
Locke's Theory of Resistance Introduction This essay focuses attention on the political philosophy of John Locke [1632 to 1704], set out by him at length in The Second Treatise of Government, originally published in 1689, but almost certainly written during late 1682 and early 1683 [1]. Locke assumes that people must have found it to be necessary to establish political societies when the concepts of meum and tuum first entered their vocabulary, and differences then began to arise within the body of the people concerning the question of ownership and distribution of material goods. He also assumed that we have the freedom, and thus the right, to dispose of, within the bounds of the laws of nature, those properties which are intrinsic to our personalities, and in particular our lives and liberties. There is a corresponding assumption that the fundamental justification of government lies in its capacity to preserve the natural rights of its citizens and, in particular, their untrammelled enjoyment of their lives, liberties and property. In the Two Treatises of Government Locke not only vindicates the lawfulness of resistance, in the language of rights and natural rights, but goes on to locate the authority to resist with the body of the people even with 'any single man, if deprived of their right [2].
Pierre Bayle - Pierre was a French philosopher and writer whose works influenced the development of the Enlightenment. Between 1684 and 1687, Bayle published his Nouvelles de la république des lettres, a journal of literary criticism. In 1686, Bayle published the first two volumes of “Philosophical Commentary” , an early plea for toleration in religious matters. This was followed by volumes three and four in 1687 and 1688. Voltaire - HE WAS a French Enlightenment writer , historian and philosopher famous his attacks on the established Catholic Church , and his advocacy of freedom of religion , freedom of expression , and separation of church and state.
The first and foremost being that politics and morality should not be separated and the second principal is freedom which the state should do it’s utmost to preserve. Rousseau was a man of the people and his social and political theory was written from the bottom up and not the top down. In his works the Confessions Rousseau tells us what it is like to rise ... ... middle of paper ... ...l society. He teaches us that morality and reason are the basis for all legitimate government. If a Government fails to respect the morality and reason of the individuals it represents it fails to be legitimate and therefore it fails to exist.
Even Wycliff’s opponents acknowledged the keenness of his dialectic. Wycliff’s writings prove that he was well grounded in Roman and English law, as well as in native history. A family whose seat was in the neighborhood of Wycliff's home, Bernard Castle, founded Balliol College, Oxford to which Wycliffe belonged, first as scholar, then as master. He attained the headship no later than 1360. When he was presented by the college (1361) with the parish of Fylingham in Lincolnshire, he had to give up the leadership of Balliol, though he could continue to live at Oxford.
He lived during the age of political upheaval. Locke had a theory of natural law and natural right, he believed that a rational purpose to government did exist defending the government as an institution. Locke insisted that not only did a good government care for the well being of it public but the well being of the government to. He believed in gradual social reform and the change in laws rather than revolution. And that we would live in a state of harmony.