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John Locke's Conception Of Government

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In 1776, the Founding Fathers brought upon the world a government and society, first among its kind. Among all else, said government was established to ensure, for the first time in human history, the protection from the tyranny of man against his brother in all forms. As such, this initiative culminated in the framework known as the Constitution of the United States of America which stipulated the structures of such a society and government. It’s defining qualities included the guarantee of the rights of man as predetermined by his nature, the separation of government from civil society, and the acknowledgment of the need to ensure government would be unable to subvert these prerequisite virtues through appropriate institutions such as the separation of powers. In other words, the founders established a polity governed by a limited government. In stark contrast to the thought that gave rise to the modern rational state, which instead defers reasonable deliberation to expert authority, limited government to the administrative state, and natural rights to the triumph of will. …show more content…

These were subsequently influenced by the writings on John Locke in his work, the Two Treatise of Government. Locke believed before the conception of government man existed within a state of nature. Within this state, man has no master and is governed merely by the law of nature, of which is reason. Therefore, since man has no master within the state of nature, he stands as an equal among his fellow man and is free. This equality was defined by the fact that all men were endowed with the faculty of reason, and the proceeding natural rights that

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Gordon Wood achieved great success among his peers with the publication of his book, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, for which he was awarded the Bancroft Prize, as well as the John H. Dunning Prize, both in 1970. In it, Dr. Wood breaks down the process of how American political thought developed from early protests against British measures in the construction of the world's first federal republic. He does so by giving us in detail using a number of different sources, historical information on the reasoning behind the revolution. Dr. Wood walks us through how our government started with a monarchical society which was hierarchical, and later transformed, and emerged as a more recognizable modern society, in where a more commercially oriented and capitalistic government came to light. Wood writes, “[Americans] learned how to define the rights of nature, how to search into, to distinguish, and to comprehend, the principles of physical, moral, religious, and civil liberty, how, in short, to discover and resist the forces of tyranny before they could be applied.

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This ideology is counter to that of liberalism as it infringes on the natural rights of its citizens, and it is undemocratic as this society would not have the consent of the governed as a whole. Furthermore, counters the rule of law because the author believes the authority should never be challenged, and therefore the author suggests that the authority is exempt of these laws. A thinker such as Hobbes would agree with the author of this source as he believed that without a strong government it would lead to nation wide chaos, such as that that the author describes through the use of the phrase, “A society that allows authority to be challenged will never succeed.”. Additionally, Locke would disagree with all parts of this source, as he believed that individuals know for themselves what is best and therefore should have the freedom to make their own decisions. For the second sentence of this source Locke and Rousseau would both disagree as they believed that consent of the governed was vital to society, which directly contradicts the authors issues with the challenging

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John Locke DBQ When reading the Declaration of Independence it is apparent that Thomas Jefferson drew inspiration from John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government. This inspiration is apparent from the way Jefferson drafted our nation’s founding document. John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson’s rationale for the propriety of America’s separation from England.

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New England was fed up with the Church of England and the Puritans wanted to recreate their own religion which they thought was more what God had believed was the intended belief. They both decided that neither of them like the way England was set up and said that England was no good for their beliefs. They planned to leave England and go to the new world to set up a life where their children had the chance to be raised in a perfect society with no corruption. Concentrated on town life and industries, they made a living off of fishing, whaling and shipbuilding. Whale oil was key because it made their lamps.

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Locke also wrote, “But though men, when they enter into society, give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of nature, into the hands of the society, to be so far disposed of by the legislative, as the

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Locke’s ideas from the Two Treatises of Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, were based upon the natural rights where power comes from the people. Both of his pieces contributed to revolutions, most importantly the American Revolution as power from monarchies was removed and democracies were created. Allowed for limited government power and all obligations were to the citizens. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding basis was on how the knowledge existence of God, certain moral truths, and laws of logic or mathematics pertained to the natural rights of

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As items are taken from the common stock, the resources become depleted. Logically then, there will not be enough resources for everyone to have the resources to live their dream. To many, this may not seem fair, however, Locke argues that “taking resources from the common stock is unlikely to harm the interests of others” (Prompt). This may seem counterintuitive, but Locke justifies this belief with two main arguments: that there is enough land to satisfy the desires of all parties, and that land is worthless until others’ labor transforms it into something of value.

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During the early stages of our country, the individual states felt that creating a central government was going to produce a government with absolute power. This led some of the representatives to dispute the idea, as they did not want to lose the power they already possessed. Edmund Burke said: “All persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust: and that they are to account for their conduct in that trust to the one great Master, Author, and Founder of society… Power to be legitimate must be according to that eternal, immutable law, in which will and reason are the same.” Between the creation of the Constitution and the Civil War, there was a period of implementation.

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Kacie Lee 2/2/18 Tomasetti AP World P.6 ID #18 1. John Locke (476-477) John Locke was an English philosopher during the period of Enlightenment. He believed that rulers should take care of the people and he defined the government as a relationship between the king and the people. He wrote the Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690) which says that people have give political ability to the king, but they still have the privilege of life, freedom, and possessions.

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The Declaration of Independence states, “--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”. In the article Why Government, it states, “But Locke also believed that governments should protect people’s natural rights.” Both of these quotes show that the purpose for creating government, is so that the protection of the natural rights of the people is ensured. Also, the idea that these fair powers are just what Men (human beings) are receiving and what they should receive from the creation of governments. Both of these quotes combine with each other, because of the pinpointed idea of how the government was created in order to benefit to the natural rights of the people, and to protect these

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Foundation of the American Government There were many different ways on how the government was created and conformed. There was the Force Theory which stated that an individual or group claimed control over a territory and forced its population to conform to its rules and government. The Evolutionary Theory is a population formed out of primitive families in which the families became the heads of the government. Another theory used to describe government is the Divine Right Theory. The divine Right theory says that God created the state and the rulers are chosen by God.

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phrase has been defined to mean the prohibition of any religious faith to have an influence on or in the government, its original intent and meaning were to prevent the government from controlling or influencing the free exercise of religion or religious expression. The relationship of church and state, or religion and politics, mirrors the interplay of ecclesiastical and governmental institutions in society in the Judeo-Christian tradition, between religious officials and state authorities, and in the Islamic tradition, between the imam-caliphs and sultans. In the West, this interplay has occasioned some theological and philosophical formulations on the relative authority of church and state. Christian theology at one time and place or another

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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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In the Two Treatises of Government (1689), he defended the claim that men are naturally free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch. With both biblical and philosophical justifications, Locke argued in defense of constitutionalism. He believed God gave Adam natural rights like; life, liberty, and property in the book of Genesis and Adam passed it on to the rest of

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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.

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