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How Did John Locke's View On Natural Rights

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The Enlightenment Philosophers big focus on natural rights, as at the time it was a subject that needed to be focused on. John Locke stated that all men are naturally in a state of perfect,untouched freedom. This means that without government to interfere with the natural rights of the people men would be free to do as they please. Men would have the liberty to think, say, do “as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature”-John Locke. Though John does not directly say that all men should have equal rights he implies it when he says “Creatures of the same species and rank should also be equal”-John Locke. About half of the given excerpt from Locke’s writing is about natural rights. In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft writes not only about natural rights, but natural rights for …show more content…

With the power of education Men and Women could become equal with education as that is a natural right. Wollstonecraft states that education allows people to become independent, letting they think for themselfs. She also says that men must pursue equal rights for both sexs as it can not be done by half the population. Everyone must try to obtain the rights they and their neighbors need. Wollstonecraft main focus was on natural rights, even if it was only focusing on making the sexs equal. Her whole excerpt is about natural rights. Not to long before Wollstonecraft was Adam Smith in 1776. He wrote “[Without government interference] the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself”-Adam Smith. Just by this sentence it has become clear that Smith saw the government as a crutch to obtaining natural rights the people deserve. He also said that people are guided by invisible hand. That hand is government. Pushing people away from what they want to do. This is essentially is taking away their own thoughts violating the natural rights. He also states that no

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So Locke knew that the government could you abuse its power by taking away your natural rights just as easily as you are

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Wollstonecraft strongly believed,“...both sexes must act from the same principle…” (Doc D) Wollstonecraft strongly wanted both sexes to follow the same criteria and be given the same educational rights, so that women could be wiser and more virtuous. Wollstonecraft and Locke both believed that all should be equal and this supports that women are one of the groups besides religion that were not given as many rights as others. She also thought,“... women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge...to full fill their peculiar duties...to free them from all restraint…”

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The main argument was woman can everything man can do. The purpose it was written was the failure of the French Constitution to give woman rights. Wollstonecraft saying that woman need to educate their children and be the best wife to their husband as can be. Wollstonecraft wrote, “But few parents are willing to receive the respectful affection of their offspring on such terms. They demand blind obedience, because they do not merit a reasonable service: and to render these demands of weakness and ignorance more binding, a mysterious sanctity is spread round the most arbitrary principle;”(CH 11) (Pg 2) Wollstonecraft is advocating that if woman do not have an education they will feel like they don’t have anything quality to teach her children, so then her children will not respect her.

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Locke believed that people were born with natural rights that included the right to life, liberty, and property. Locke argued that people formed governments to protect their natural rights, so the best kind of government was one with limited power and was accepted by all citizens. Locke said that a government has an obligation to the people it governs, therefore, the people have a right to revolt if the government fails at its obligations. Like many other Enlightenment philosophers, John Locke’s ideas reflected on the checks and balance system as well as the Declaration of Independence. For example, in the Declaration of Independence, it says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

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In her document she claims that, “Women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same pursuits as men”(Wollstonecraft, On National Education). Wollstonecraft dynamically argued that if women had the right to study, they’d be able to prove they aren’t inferior by ignorance and low desires. Despite the fact that these four philosophers had contrasting ideas on how to enhance daily life, they all concentrated the same central idea. They each contributed something unique to their society, which has influenced our daily

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In John Locke’s “Two Treatises on Government,” Locke mentions the “natural state” in which every person has an equal right to use natural resources provided by the “spontaneous hand of nature” (Locke Sec. 26). However, if every person has the right to these resources, the question remains as to what is considered private property. The key to Locke’s moral transition from common territory to private ownership was his conception of self-ownership, or property in one’s

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With John Locke’s idea of natural rights people have more control over something in their lives, without natural rights the government would have

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Locke is saying that from the moment someone is born they have the right to fight for their survival. Locke also talks about the right to property saying, “…yet every man has a property in his own person; this nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body and the work of his hands we may say are properly his” (Locke). If a person mixes his labor into something, then it is his property because of the labor invested in it. Locke knew that people would object to this idea which he responds, “It will perhaps be objected to this, that is gathering the acorns, or other fruits of the earth, etc., makes a right to them, then any one may engross as much as he will.

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In the book of vindication of the right of a woman, Wollstonecraft brings out clearly the roles of a woman in her society and how it has led to oppression of women (Wollstonecraft 22). Wollstonecraft believes that men and women are equal given the same environment and empowerment, women can do anything a man can do. In her society, education for women is only aimed at making her look pleasing to men. Women are treated as inferior being and used by men as sex objects. Wollstonecraft believed that the quality of mind of women is the same with that of men, and therefore women should not be denied a chance for formal education that will empower them to be equal with men.

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Locke believes the their are four principles of natural rights; life, health, liberty, and possessions. Locke reasoning on killing a thief, even if your life is not being threatened is “ I have no reason to suppose, that he, who would

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John Locke is an enlightened political philosopher whose explanations to his ideas remains profoundly influential. Locke believes people should have the right to do anything they want without the government enforcing them to do a task. In The Second Treatise, Locke discusses some vital concepts of his thinking, beginning with a discussion of the State of Nature. He explains that humans move from a state of nature characterized by perfect freedom and are governed by reason to a civil government in which the authority is vested in a legislative and executive power. In the State of Nature, men are born equal, to have perfect liberty to maintain.

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Throughout this text, Wollstonecraft discusses how close-minded society was about women and equality. She describes society as being under the impression that women and men were two different animals. Society also believed that men were free and logical thinkers that could rule and change society while women were seen as pretty objects that could bear children. Wollstonecraft’s feminist view discusses that the problem was not only men inhibiting women, but women themselves were also not pushing against the ideology that men were superior. She continues to explain her new feminist ideology that discusses changes in society that would create equality.

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Locke's most important and influential political writings are contained in his Two Treatises on Government. The first treatise is concerned almost exclusively with refuting the argument that political authority was derived from religious authority. The second treatise contains Locke’s own constructive view of the aims and justification for civil government. According to Locke, the State of Nature, the natural condition of mankind, is a state of perfect and complete liberty to conduct one's life as one best sees fit, free from the interference of others. This does not mean, however, that it is a state of license: one is not free to do anything at all one pleases, or even anything that one judges to be in one’s interest.

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Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in response to a report to the French National Assembly, which stated that women should only receive a domestic education (Johnson Lewis). She believed that women needed to be educated in order to find their way to equality with men. Wollstonecraft writes in the introduction: “The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by satire or instruction to improve

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