Locke

1
Lockes Foundations

• Natural rights philosophy
• Influenced Founding Fathers
• Based on imagining what life would be like
  without government
• Anarchy
• Thomas Jefferson called these the Laws of
  Nature and of natures God in the Declaration of
  Independence
• Man formed governments in order to preserve
  property and justice.
• Did your community have any laws?
• Protecting / preserving what?

2
Hobbes Foundations

• Government is necessary to regulate humans who
  are basically evil
• People must surrender to rulers in exchange for
  protection
• Mans natural state is war and monarchies were
  needed to restrain it
• People must give up certain rights to the monarch

3
Rousseaus Foundations

• Man is good by nature, but corrupted by society
• Political order is necessary
• Ideal society has a contract between men, not
  between men and government
• Government should be controlled by the general
  will of the people
• Laws are acts of the people

4
Would anyone have the right to govern you?

• Locke would say no, nor would you have the
  right to govern anyone else.
• The only way that a person gets the right to
  govern is through the consent of the governed
• People trade perfect freedom for increased
  security mutually agreeing to abide by the will
  of the majority.

5
Would you have any rights?

• Life, liberty, and property
• Right to defend these rights if necessary
• Locke called these natural rights
• We now call them fundamental, basic or human
  rights

6
Lockes Solution

• Best way to solve the problem of the state of
  nature is a Social Contract
• People give up natural freedoms in order to gain
  protection for their rights
• The formation of a government which can create
  and enforce laws should be agreed upon by those
  involved
• Basis for the formation of U.S. government
• A social contract is also known as a compact or
  covenant