Liberal Enlightenment Analysis

If the Liberal Enlightenment Theorists were asked whether or not a Liberal Arts degree is worth pursuing in college, their response may be quite different from the opinion of the parents in this antidote. For John Locke, he might say that getting a degree in Liberal Arts — or a degree of any kind — is beneficial to one’s life. This can be explained by his beliefs of labor and property. According to Locke, “For ’tis labour ended that puts the difference of value on everything…”, meaning the labor you exert on anything, whether it be property or something else, is a determining factor of value you create in society (2002). I would argue that the labor used to obtain an education of any sort is of value. He would argue that this value makes the

As discussed in The Subjection of Women, “human beings are no longer born to their place in life… but are free to employ their faculties, and such favorable chances as offer, to achieve the lot which may appear them the most desirable” (Rossi, 1970). With that I think it is possible that Mill & Mill would see financial aid as a way for one to move up in the world because of certain privileges given to them. This way of meritocracy for them could also be compared to the modern notion of the American Dream. I believe John Locke would argue on the opposite end of the spectrum, viewing financial aid as something people do not actually deserve, and in turn perpetuating the idea that charity is negative to society. This goes back to Locke’s belief in the labor contract, and that the way to be successful is to exert your own labor. In the case of financial aid, someone else’s labor has been used to create this money, meaning they are the ones who are actually deserving of

Evolution and “survival of the fittest” mean that things are out of our hands to change (Spencer, 1896). For Spencer, women really have no chance of being equal in society with men. Even though they do have the opportunity to evolve, it will still be limited to their role in society and educational institutions probably would not be included for him. Additionally, Spencer might agree with the parents regarding the value of pursuing Liberal Arts, simply because he believes in biological processes, and scientific ways of analyzing social situations. A prime example of this would be his organic analogy that relates society to a living organism, that becomes more complex as it evolves (Spencer,