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Analysis Of John Locke's The Second Treatise Of Government

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In “The Second Treatise of Government” (1690), John Locke ambitiously sets out to prove once and for all, that we must rely on the concept of natural rights theory when examining human nature. Locke’s concept seemed unequivocal until Jeremy Bentham’s “Anarchical Fallacies” (1843) which is a paper directly criticizing the ideas presented in Locke’s “The Second Treatise of Government” (1690). Following careful understanding of above mentioned texts, this paper will eventually argue in favor of the criticism provided by Bentham against Locke’s natural rights theory and provide support for principle of utility, a concept by Bentham and why it is necessary and more valuable then natural rights theory when considering human nature. This paper will also consider the work of John Stuart Mill in “What Utilitarianism Is” (1861), to …show more content…

When Bentham states that the natural rights are imaginary rights, Locke can make that claim that by making it known to the public that human being have innate rights which are not rooted in the legal context of the law and therefore cannot be limited by them, this would give human beings the ability to act and investigate against political bodies who may be guilty of violations against its citizens. This point can also be used to defend against Bentham’s claim that laws do not exist without government, because natural laws are not in the realm of politics or legal law therefore they do not need government to be real. Furthermore, the social contract aspect of the natural laws may keep the government of nations in check in terms of pressuring them to actually representative of the people they represent and this would be through the looming threat of a rebelling or a revolution. Finally Locke can also argue that announcing to the world that there are such laws makes it clear and sets a standard for future natural rights to be developed

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