Property This is an explication of Chapter 5 of John Locke’s The Second Treatise of Government (1689). The focus will be on property. By the end of this explication readers will have an understanding of property through explaining individual property, who it should belong to, and how it should be controlled. Locke, when talking about what makes property individual, states that “he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property.” (Locke, 1690, Sect. 27). When the person “removes out of the state that nature hath provided” they take something produced by nature and gather it, in doing so they have put their labour …show more content…
26). With everything on Earth being shared by every living person or animal, it is only fair that whatever is produced by Earth is fair game for whomever wants to take some. In other words, everything the Earth produces naturally is meant for all the creatures that live within it to feast off of its products. This is because “no body has originally a private dominion" and “the labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his” (Locke, 1690, Sect. 27); Locke says it is fair for people to own property. This means that because everyone has the right to what comes out of the world, and since their labour is theirs, people have just as much right to property as the person beside them, and anyone in the …show more content…
Private property can be many things, from your house to the pencil you use to write notes. It is your property and no one should be able to take that from you. When it came to wanting to treat people fairly and the same, Marx had some views that could still be used to this day. Even though Locke and Marx are similar in that they wish for fairness to be at the main focus of the government, they differ on how they believe in their government. Locke sees the government with optimism while Marx only holds condescending views revolving around it. In his writings Karl Marx refutes many of John Locke’s views and perceptions on private property, government, and labour and how they affect society. Body Paragraph 1 ¥ First I would talk about Marx’s view on how there is a hierarchy of rights and the one on top is property ¥ Then give some examples on why I believe that it is wrong ¥ I would then talk about how Locke’s view makes more sense because it doesn 't talk only about how people will want to screw each other over but instead we grab enough and share the rest ¥ I would then conclude which argument was stronger and why ¥ Then a transition sentence Body Paragraph
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke have authored two works that have had a significant impact on political philosophy. In the “Leviathan” by Hobbes and “Two Treatises of Government” by Locke, the primary focus was to analyze human nature to determine the most suitable type of government for humankind. They will have confounding results. Hobbes concluded that an unlimited sovereign is the only option, and would offer the most for the people, while for Locke such an idea was without merit. He believed that the government should be limited, ruling under the law, with divided powers, and with continued support from its citizens. With this paper I will argue that Locke had a more realistic approach to identifying the human characteristics that organize people into societies, and is effective in persuading us that a limited government is the best government.
societies for as long as possible. But Locke did not feel this way. He thought
In Second Treatise of Government John Locke characterizes the state of nature as one’s ability to live freely and abide solely to the laws of nature. Therefore, there is no such thing as private property, manmade laws, or a monarch. Locke continues to say that property is a communal commodity; where all humans have the right to own and work considering they consume in moderation without being wasteful. Civil and Political Societies are non-existent until one consents to the notion that they will adhere to the laws made by man, abide by the rules within the community, allow the ability to appoint men of power, and interact in the commerce circle for the sake of the populace. Locke goes further to state that this could be null in void if the governing body over extends their power for the gain of absolute rule. Here, Locke opens the conversation to one’s natural right to rebel against the governing body. I personally and whole heartily agree with Locke’s principles, his notion that all human beings have the natural right to freedoms and the authority to question their government on the basis that there civil liberties are being jeopardized.
John Locke is considered one of the best political minds of his time. The modern conception of western democracy and government can be attributed to his writing the Second Treatise of Government. John Locke championed many political notions that both liberals and conservatives hold close to their ideologies. He argues that political power should not be concentrated to one specific branch, and that there should be multiple branches in government. In addition to, the need for the government to run by the majority of the population through choosing leaders, at a time where the popular thing was to be under the rule of a monarch. But despite all of his political idea, one thing was extremely evident in his writing. This was that he preferred limited
Locke clarified the problem by pointing out his notions that mostly derived from the natural state of human beings. Each man was originally born and predestined to have his own body, hands, head and so forth which can help him to create his own labor. When he knew how to use his personal mind and labor to appropriate bountiful subjects around him, taking them "out of the hands of...
...ower by the proletariat.2 Marx then tries to eliminate the power of the Bourgeois by eliminating property. Without private property the Bourgeois cannot control business and create capital.
Locke talked about a government that needed to stay out of the lives of the people that it was governing. He thought it was to controlling and made too many regulations on the everyday activities that people did. For example, it taxed everything, told people were to live, how to work, what they can and can’t do (Pourly 4). He just thought it was enough and they needed to go back to the way they used to live. Or they needed to redirect the way it was to a more democrat system. Locke knew all men were created equally and that no man should be more powerful then the next so, in his head why did the government have to be in control and take over so much power (Long 8)
John Locke is a seventeenth century philosopher who believed that government should be based around the people rather than the power of one person. Equality and property were two factors that Locke considered to be the key to a great society. Locke begins his writings with a discussion on individual property and how each man body is his own property. This leads Locke into the argument that man can obtain property only by using his own labor. an example Locke gives is the picking of an apple. The apple is the property of the man who used his labor to pick it. He goes on to say “A person may only acquire as many things in this way as he or she can reasonably use to their advantage”. With the discussion of property Locke leads into the discussion of trade and monetary value stating that it is natural of man to w...
According to Locke’s theory, a commodity becomes the private possession of an individual who labors for it. Thus it is no longer a direct gift of nature: [A man] “that so employed his pains about any of the spontaneous products of nature, as any way to alter them from the state which nature put them in, by placing any of his labour on them, did thereby acquire a propriety in them” ( 360).
...believed it kept many in bonds or slavery. While Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that freedom was attained by entering into a social contract with limits established by good will and community participation. Both theories would put restraints on personal property and capital creating ownership relinquished to the state. He believed that laws to protect citizens could not keep up with the changing economic environment. One could conclude that Marx and Rousseau’s theories were relatively close in the role that it plays between citizens and personal property ownership.
John Locke states his belief that all men exist in "a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and person as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man." (Ebenstein 373) Locke believes that man exists in a state of nature and thus exists in a state of uncontrollable liberty, which has only the law of nature, or reason, to restrict it. (Ebenstein 374) However, Locke does state that man does not have the license to destroy himself or any other creature in his possession unless a legitimate purpose requires it. Locke emphasizes the ability and opportunity to own and profit from property as necessary to be free.
argues that man becomes to be viewed as a commodity worth only the labour he creates
... in a way that lead to inequality. Marx similarly argues that private property has led to inequality, because it has put the means of production into the hands of the bourgeoisie, thereby subjugating the proletariat. Even though both men resided in different centuries, their theories are similar because they perceived the singular issue of inequality. As theorists they did differ on where equality would lie; Rousseau believed that man had lost equality as he evolved out of the natural state, whereas Marx believed equality had yet to be realized.
Karl Marx’s theories about class struggle, communism, and social justice can be known as Marxism. Marxism is summed up in the Encarta Reference Library as “a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies.” In contrast the Encarta Reference Library defines capitalism as “an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and motivation by profit.” Marxism is the system of socialism of which the dominant feature is public ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange.
In definition, private property is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Private property is different from public property in which public property are assets owned by state or government compared to a private business or individual. Yet, in Marx’s opinion, “private property is thus the product, the result, the necessary consequence of alienated labor, of the external relation of the worker to nature and to himself. Private property thus results by analysis from the concept of alienated labor, of alienated man, of estranged labor, of estranged life, o...