John Locke Research Paper

John Locke, Karl Marx and Niccolo Machiavelli are three of many of history’s important political philosophers. Their political outlooks on topics such as class, property and civil liberties inspired the draft and framework of many modern day societies. An area all three seem to cover is their conclusion on how they define what the ideal government system is. It can be argued that all three’s different perceptions and conclusions on how a government should be managed was greatly influenced by how they each differently perceived human nature to be. This interestingly and ultimately leads to a split between focusing on either a government’s societal means and moral/proper needs or a focus on the end result (of any political consequence that

Locke). Locke then consequently believes that this natural law “teaches all mankind…that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions”. All should thus be kind to one another and avoid “invading others rights…doing hurt to one another” (Section 6 Locke). As one can see, his definition and view points are based off of very moral and just reasoning. All of this points to Locke’s conception of human nature: Human reason is based on individual self sufficiency on an intellectual level. All men are created equal in nature and they all have the duty to govern themselves. They all have rights equal rights but not the rights to abuse their power over other men. Locke thus reaches the conclusion that a government should be by the people and for the people. Locke’s ideas ultimately seems to comes down to the idea that if all people are equally capable of reason what right does one have to prioritize his reason above the rest without consent? . From here,

He believed human nature to be inherently good as well and his opinion on human reason ultimately culminates to the fact that when not contained by the pretenses of capitalism in a government, there would be no antagonistic behavior between people. Marx disdained the idea of capitalism and viewed it with great criticism because he believed it split the modern day workers into two classes: the Proletariat and the Bourgeoisie. The Proletariat, or the working class, was what he championed for because he believed that in capitalism, the Bourgeoisie would continuously exploit its workers (Section 1.5 Marx Engels). Marx saw the Bourgeoisie as a class that was cruel and exploited the hard work and profit of those that worked beneath them. Clearly, the reader can see Marx’s contempt and sympathy for the working class as he says “[the] work of the proletarians has lost all individual character…he becomes an appendage of the machine” (1.31) and how they are like “slaves of the bourgeoisie class,… and state,…daily and hourly enslaved by the over looker”(1.32). This ultimately allows Marx to reach the conclusion that society would be better off with no social classes. His political conclusion culminated in the idea that a communistic type government that was very close to anarchy would be ideal. Everyone should have equal pay so that the working class will no longer get exploited (2.12). Capitalism is a type of corruption to a person’s