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John locke vs aristotle
Aristotle and john locke
Compare and contrast Plato and John Locke
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There was something pulling me back” (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000.) The citizen described by Aristotle is a member of the polis. The polis is particularly important in defining the citizen because it is what allows self-sufficiency. This self-sufficiency creates an artificial equality that causes people to do things for the public good.
Thomas Hobbes He liked to study various types of government. He thought that the government of a monarchy was better than democracy because he had no doubt that they were naturally wicked and were not to be trusted to govern. He believed that it was better to have a governor like a king that would know how to act like a leader and rule a country.
America, the land of the free, was founded upon the standards life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In America’s early years, Thomas Paine, in his book Rights of Man characterized this country’s government as functioning in unison with no difficulties. When you break it down and look at the big picture, some people will argue that increased diversity has brought the nation to an all time peak, in terms of unity. Meanwhile, others maintain the idea that Thomas Paine’s assessment is mistaken for what is to one day be achieved. Yet while we would like to believe in his visionary, it unfortunately does not hold true today regarding both our modern politics and social principles.
The Age of Reason In Europe, during the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, many philosophers gathered together to discuss their different but similar ideas to help shape the world we live in today. In the late 17th and 18th century, four enlightenment philosophers named John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft focused on the same main idea. They believed in individual rights and presented their arguments through religion, government, economics, and equality for women.
John Locke believed in life, liberty, and property and Thomas Jefferson believed in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You can already see they had both had the same view point , they both believed in democracy, the people had the right to overthrow a government if they feel like if there are abusing their rights since they are supposed to protect the people’s rights, and they both believed all men were created equal. The differences they had were that John Locke believed people had the right to happiness, believed the separation of powers through legislative and executive branches, and believed in the privacy for people’s personal affairs. While Thomas Jefferson believed people had the right for happiness, he also referred the government
In the Enlightenment, people had new ideas about government. This gave the French the perfect way to have their country work well. John Locke, an Enlightenment thinker, said that no king should have absolute power. He believed in a constitutional monarchy, which basically meant he thought that any ruler should have rules to follow too. He also believed in a social contract: people give a little of their freedom to their ruler, but he/she cannot take away their natural rights, the rights that they are born with, and they have the right to get rid of him/her if he/
Does John Locke have an answer to Aristotle’s question of: “what is a good citizen”? Aristotle wants to explore and understand nature of different states and constitutions but in order to do that, he argues that first we would have to take a deeper look at the nature of citizenship. Aristotle believes that saying that a citizen is someone who lives in a city or has access to the courts of laws is not enough, he supplements this argument by mentioning other people groups that has access to these things as well, specifically slaves and resident aliens (The Politics of Aristotle, 2009, p. 122). Instead, Aristotle proposes an idea that citizen is someone who upholds the public office and participates in administration of justice, this definition, which he suggests is only applicable to individuals in democratic state, is then further broadened stating that: “a citizen is anyone who is entitled to share in deliberative or judicial office”. To understand if John Locke has an answer to Aristotle’s question or if he’s even interested in such a question it is necessary to look deeper and explore more how Aristotle and John Locke views the states and constitutions, how they explain them and what are their views on citizenship (if they have any).
John Locke was a philosopher and political scientist. He had many interests and produced a number of writings that influenced future leaders. One of these leaders was Thomas Jefferson, who was involved with the aid of America and the act gaining independence from Britain. The Declaration of Independence and Locke’s views on government contain many similar aspects. These ideas includes the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (natural rights); the protection that is provided by the government for these rights; and the altering or abolishment of government if it fails to provide and protect the rights of the people.
Given the popularity and influence Aristotle had in 17th century early-modern academia, it would have been almost impossible for Locke not to have been shaped by the Aristotelian tradition. Even Locke's most well-known idea—the human mind as a blank slate, a tabula rasa—was first raised in Aristotle's De Anima. This lineage is also evident in Locke's work on words and language, though on some points Aristotle's thought plays more the part of sparring partner than father to Locke's system. In order to see the development of such, however, it is important to first understand Aristotle's own account. Aristotle's De Interpretatione opens with a clarification of what words are, saying, “Spoken words are the symbols of mental experience and written words are the symbols of
Confucius, Aristotle, and Lao-Tzu—all incredibly influential thinkers—did not always agree on how one ought to live; where Aristotle believed that thought or study led to virtue, Lao-Tzu placed focus on inaction, and Confucius taught that rituals paved the way to the best life. A few ideas, however, tie Confucius closer to Aristotle than to Lao-Tzu. Because Aristotle also placed importance on names, emphasized the need to find a mean of behavior, and believed that rulers should most critically be moral, Confucius would have preferred Aristotle to Lao-Tzu. Names—Aristotle utilizes them, even though he recognizes the difference between what exists in reality and the form represented by its name, while Lao-Tzu, on the other hand, maintains that names only serve to put limits on the named, and, in fact run the risk of creating opposites. According to Lao-Tzu, “Recognize beauty and ugliness is born.
Aristotle doesn't define a citizen in this way because he says that slaves can also live in a place with a citizen, which already shows that his definition of citizen excludes some sort of people group, which already clashes with the current definition of the word. He adds another perimeter around which people can't and can be full citizens, the perimeter being age. He says that people who are too young and people who are too old cannot be citizens entirely, only in the sense that they qualify to be citizens. Aristotle states that "a state is a body of citizens sufficing for the purpose of life." In Part II, Aristotle discusses how lineage is important in relation to citizenship.
Aristotle did not consider all people equal; Locke and Aristotle had differing views on citizenship in their respective polity or commonwealth. He, Aristotle, argued that only certain people should participate in the political process. This contrary to Locke’s ideals that all people were created equal. Moreover, Aristotle did not consider all inhabitants of a state as citizens; he did not think women, aliens, or vulgar people, to name a few, should be granted the rights of citizens. According to Locke, all members of a society had equal rights, except for
Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau have become known as three of the most prominent political theorists in the world today. Their philosophies and innovative thinking is known worldwide and it has influenced the creation of numerous new governments. All three thinkers agree on the idea of a social contract but their opinions differ on how the social contract is established and implemented within each society. These philosophers state, that in order for the social contract to be successful people need to give up certain freedoms in order to secure fundamental protections from the state, henceforth the state then has certain responsibilities to their citizens. Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau all believe that before men were governed we all lived in a state of nature.
Introductory Paragraph (description of theory) John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) is a English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers and known as the "Father of Classical Liberalism”. Locke got a scholarship to Oxford University where he spent 30 years at Oxford, studying, tutoring, and writing. He wrote influential political science and philosophy. Locke 's famous theory had to do with the Social Contract theory. The Social Contract covers the origin of government and how much authority a state should have over an individual.
Only those who are born with true philosophical understanding can rule. In the Second Treatise by John Locke, Locke addresses the state of nature, which is essentially equality and freedom. Even though people have liberty, they still need to obey natural laws. On the contrary of Plato’s just city, Locke believes that absolute authority is not a civil government. A civil society is where the majority rules.