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John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

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Background: John Locke (1632–1704), was an English philosopher who wrote during the 17th century at a time where there was grave discussion and disagreements over the crown and the parliament, as well as conflict between Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics. During his period he wrote a vast number of influential works that shaped the face of politics and political reasoning until today. With one of the most important respectively being his 1690 piece “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” that analyzed the foundation and ground for human understanding and knowledge. In addition to this, his work regarding the theories of mind where he argues that men are born “Tabula Rasa” meaning born with a blank slate of mind, free from ideas, influence …show more content…

He begins to address this issue by considering individual property, how everyone own his or her own body, and all the functions and labor that come as a result of this body. In order for personal property to exist, there need to be a way for people to be able to gain the things around them, using the example of an apple and how if one is picked, because they have contributed their labor to this object it then becomes theirs. There is no need for the consent of mankind and therefore people are able or capable or acquiring things out of self-initiative as long as they don’t overextend natural rights of acquisition . Locke then applies this theory to land, where he says one in a state of nature may claim land by adding labor such as a farm or a house. Therefore making labor the determining factor of value, the way one makes acquisitions and therefore the world more advantageous to them is by adding labor. This traces the genesis of purchasing power, noting that all necessary goods such as food are short-lived, and if one has the capacity to acquire more that is necessary (e.g. more apples than he can consume so they are not wasted) there can be trade among others. However he does mention some limitations to property in the state of nature, including the fact that without the presence of money. Firstly, there need to be a transfer of labor from a person to an object to claim it as theirs and one is incapable of taking more than they are physically able to use or

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