Comparing John Locke, David Hume, And Jean-Jacques Rousseau

John Locke stated that all men are naturally in a perfect freedom as their Natural rights. Quoting Locke's words stating “creatures of the same species and rank should be equal amongst others without subordination or subjection.” A philosopher who believed in Natural rights for all men and women lived 1632-1704 in England, his expression of revolutionary ideas such as Natural rights and the Social contract later

In his Second Treatise on Government Locke focus’ on liberalism & capitalism, defending the claim that men are by nature free and equal against the idea that God had made all people subject to a king. He argued that people have ‘natural rights’, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that hold the foundation for the major laws of a society. He says, “…we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit.” (2nd Treatise, Chapter 2, sec 4). John Locke used this claim, that all men were naturally free and equal, for understanding the idea of a government as a result of a social contract. This is where people in the state of nature transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better guarantee the steady and comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property.

John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu both helped to build our constitution and we borrowed some of their ideas for how we live our lives in America. John Locke had the idea that people were born with the three natural rights: life, liberty, and property. We as an early country

Constitution. John Locke’s belief of “life, liberty, and property” was the most influence on the American. Beside the Magna Carta, Petition of Rights, and English Bill of Rights, Locke also has a great influence of limit government. Locke’s Social Contract theory was to protect the basic rights of the people, it for the right of citizens to revolt against their king. Social contract is a convention between men that aims to discard the state of nature. According to Locke, the State of Nature is a state of perfect and complete liberty to behavior one's life as one best perceives fit, and free from the interfering of others. Also from Locke’s view of State of Nature, he believes it was given by

Natural Rights (Locke) appear in the declaration of Independence as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Jean Rousseau developed the idea of the social contract and the notion of replacing a government that fails to maintain consent is cited as justification for the American Revolution against the English.

While reading the “The Second Treatise of Government,” you can notice and see that John Locke has a strong standing for civil rights as well as helping with the development of the Constitution of the United States. He states that the “consent of the governed,” is basically saying that communities are not put together by the divine right or ruled by. Paternal, familial, and political are types of powers that John Locke mentions that have all have unlike characteristics. He inspired others to believe in and want equal rights and democracy. John Locke talks about the state of nature, which basically states that no one has the power to be ruler of someone, as well as they are able to do what they want in a freely matter. In other words people are born just like anyone else that is born, and should have equally rights to property, health, and liberty, and that no one should have the power over anyone. Everyone should be able to live and enjoy his or her own freedom and wellbeing. However, the state of nature is not a guarantee to have natural laws, which could help with the protecting of one’s property. According to him having your own personal freedom was the true meaning of state of nature. John Locke thought that people were following his faith in human rationality through the declaration of Locke. John Locke states that if the government takes away from others for them to empower them then the people have right and opportunity to go against

A famous English philosopher known as John Locke was one of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment. His philosophy was based on the idea that certain rights are endowed upon people by nature and not dependent on the government; this philosophy is known as Natural Law. These rights are known as Natural Rights, and according to Locke they consist of life, liberty,

Rousseau thought that man was born weak and ignorant, but virtuous. It is only when man became sociable that they became wicked. (Cress, 80) Since civil society makes men corrupt, Rousseau advocated “general will”, more precisely the combined wills of each person, to decide public affairs. General will would become the sovereign and thus it would be impossible for its interests to conflict with the priorities of the citizens, since this would be doing harm to itself. Virtue came from the freedom of men to make decisions for the good of the

The works of Enlightenment thinkers Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau were extremely influential in laying the foundations for the government of the United States. Locke wrote about the natural rights that all men possess and the fundamental principles of a sound government in Second Treatise of Civil Government. Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws focused on the purpose and responsibilities of a government. Montesquieu also introduced the idea of separation of powers which is central to the organization of the US government today. In Social Contract, Rousseau focused on the idea of consent of the governed and a form of social contract in which individuals submit their rights to the entire community rather than to a king. The Founding Fathers incorporated

John Locke, Berkeley and Hume are all empiricist philosophers. They all have many different believes, but agree on the three anchor points; The only source of genuine knowledge is sense experience, reason is an unreliable and inadequate route to knowledge unless it is grounded in the solid bedrock of sense experience and there is no evidence of innate ideas within the mind that are known from experience. Each of these philosophers developed some of the most fascinating conceptions of the relationships between our thoughts and the world around us. I will argue that Locke, Berkeley and Hume are three empiricists that have different beliefs.

From a natural rights perspective the belief is that above all else human beings have basic human rights that must be adhered to regardless of the consequences. Locke (1690, as cited in Burgh et al., 2006) developed the

Locke's identification of natural rights John Locke, one of the founders of our great country, had three natural rights that he believed in life, liberty, and estate. These natural rights still exist today within the American law. John Locke's identification of natural rights fits well with American law because John Locke had a big influence on the shaping of American government and laws. The extent of liberty that each American has is still the same as when Locke came up with this natural right. In America, people still get to make their own decisions on their religious views, what lifestyle they want to live, their political views, and how they act.

Locke also believed that all these reasoning abilities that one has should be protected with natural human rights. Locke wished to convince the society that it is necessary to impose the idea of “Natural Rights” and these rights can possibly lay the groundwork for a better

John Locke was one of the most influential writers during the Enlightenment period, and was the first “Enlightenment Thinker”. Locke is the author of the “Two Treatises” and believed that every person was born with “natural rights” such as: life, liberty, and property (Locke). These rights were meant for everyone, and not just the nobility or wealthy. Locke uses references from the Bible throughout the “Two Treatises” stating that “God created man without any state of inferiority” (Locke). This disproves the idea of “Divine Right” given from God that many countries in Europe had been participating in. John Locke also discussed the importance of “The Beginning of

At some point they cannot survive by themselves and everyone needs to come together for the common good In giving everything to the community the individual receives everything he or she has lost plus "more power to preserve what he has" (189). Lives must be lived in and for the group; the life as an individual must be merged into the life of the state, and the people must be involved in all aspects of government. There can be no clubs, separate churches, power groups, or political parties, because these would create separate rights for individuals, and give some individuals more power than others. By creating this, Rousseau annihilates power struggles between the rights of a group and individual rights. In this system, there is no one ruler of the community. A citizen who puts his or her community first is ruler, and ruled. The political government is one united system, it does what the community wants it to do.