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Locke Essay
Locke Essay
Locke Essay
parliament should have more power. Conflicts between the parliament and the
king started to grow, parliament had gathered an army, and war broke out. After
9 years of battle, parliament won and executed Charles. This is interesting to
note, although the monarchy was abolished, England
still went being ruled under the personal rule of Oliver Cromwell, leader of the
parliament. After 11 years in 1660 people wanted the monarchy back, for this
reason, the English civil war was not a revolution. This led to Restoration,
which the parliament called Charles II, son of Charles I, back from France to be
the king, in which he had to agree to give parliament more power. He suddenly
died in 1685, and because he had no children, his brother James became the
king. There was only one problem with James II; he was a catholic. He was alien
to both parties of the parliament, which were protestant. He wanted policies like
the toleration of different religious beliefs. Parliament did not like this and in
1688 called William the Orange, the Dutch prince and husband of James
daughter Mary, to become the king and queen, who were nicely protestant.
Although William came with an army, James army was scared and fled. James
himself also got scared and fled as well hence the other name of the
revolution, Bloodless Revolution, for no blood was spilled. This settled England
as Protestant and put an end to many conflicts between the parliament and
monarchy.
We should first come back Hobbes, who was born in 1588. He was a man
who lived through the civil war, and he was a man who was full of fear. A man
full of fear in a civil war. He fled to France, partly because he was afraid that he
would be persecuted of being a Royalist. He believed that in the most basic
Human Nature there would be war, and someone should control the people to
prevent it from happening, thus he supported the monarchy. His Leviathan,
published two years after the execution of the king, was controversial for this
reason. His only experience without a king was the civil war, on the other hand,
Locke was only ten years old when the war broke out and was not affected as
much as Hobbes was. He was not even in England at the time of the Glorious
Revolution. His friend, the Earl of Shaftsbury was a leader in the planning of the
revolution, and this influenced Locke by shaping his ideas and most likely
making him pro-revolution. Second treatise justifies the resistance, and it is a
defense of William and the civil government. A civil government which protects
the freedom, property and rights of people. When looked at today, people say it
is already how it is supposed to be, yet it is important to note that this was
completely new, making it a revolutionary work. Just by looking at it generally
we can see why; These ideas of freedom, equality and government became a
foundation for the modern democracy, and later on for American Declaration of
Independence and French Revolution. Thomas Jefferson even said that he was
one of the three greatest men ever lived. Later the French philosopher
Montesquieu
covenant between people and the ruler, yet difference comes when he believes
that people have a right to bring down the ruler if he fails to protect.
He goes on and proposes something that is the basis for Human Rights,
that everyone is equal and free, that people can do whatever they want as the
laws of nature allow them. This is a very significant idea, saying no men is
obligatory to the law of other men, instead they should protect each other in the
name of equality. He also suggests that when someone harms another
concerning health and property in any way, harmed one has the right of
punishment. Yet he also believes that punishments should be according to the
crime. This is where the law is needed, for a harmed man may not always make
the right decision.
He then continues into the state of war. Hobbes believes that when
humans left in nature will fight each other, Locke separates these nature and
war as two different states. First he defines war, as a state of enmity and
destruction (Wootton 1993, p.269) He suggests two different
concepts of war, the war in society, and the war in nature. The key difference is
how they end. In society, it ends when it ends with last damage, and parties in
war go to a common authority, however in nature it ends when the attacking
party stops the attack, and must also offer reparation. It is important to note
that Locke uses the term war for the fight between people, not countries.
Without an authority, people would have to defend themselves. Yet the same
thing applies to authorities, they must not fail to protect the people. This is a
difference of Locke, both from Sir Robert Filmer and Hobbes. In Patriarcha, Filmer
defends that people have no right to stand up against the king because of the
divine right. Hobbes, the pessimistic English believes that a ruler must keep
everyone in line, yet Locke believes people are more rational, believing
everyone is equal, they should be able to stand up to the ruler.
Lockes ideas seem simple yet they may take some time to fully absorb.
He repeats himself a lot, giving many, many examples on one idea. Although it
is unusual for Locke to quote the bible, he does this a lot in his most
fundamental idea of property. Most of the examples about land come from the
bible, and about how the earth was created for mankind. One cannot help but
think about this in our modern world with our knowledge about science and new
ideas of religion, can we still make sense in Lockes ideas? The earth, like in the
bible, may not have been created for humans alone, yet humans are still a part
of the world, with many other creatures. The ego of humans led them to believe
that they own it. Some got out of control and tried to rule it by themselves, yet
no absolutist survived, every man becomes dust, and that is perhaps the one
true equality. One also agrees with him on the state of war, that people do not
have to fight, unlike Hobbes. Every animal has an instinct of passing on genes
and race. Of course, these are again facts that we know in our modern world.
We may not be able to support Lockes ideas with his own reasoning of the
bible, but we can still back him up with our knowledge of human emotions,
nature, and instincts. One agrees or not, it is simply wrong to say his ideas were
less than revolutionary.
All in all, we can see that absolutism had different opinions, because of
anything else that has different opinions; different people of different ages,
characters, and views. One cannot help but wonder if Lockes ideas are maybe
too utopic in a way. When one reads the arguments, they make incredible sense
and seem understandable. It is great that it influenced many things, yet the
question is if they were kept. His ideas seem incredible for the common people,
and it is very easy for the rulers to exploit it and deceive people. Who's to say
there no governments now which hide behind the mask of democracy, a
concept which Locke laid the foundation 350 years ago?
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