Grotius Reasons For Belonging To A Society Bound By Law

amount of their freedom to ensure order, safety, security and peace. According to Bertram (2010), Rousseau pointed out that rational beings consent to have a government in order for them to have a richer and more orderly life than would otherwise be possible.

     The year was sixteen hundred and eighty-nine and a man by the name of John Locke wrote Second Treatise on Government (Zinn 73). In it, Locke wrote that in a natural state everyone, all people, are born free and equal, and possess certain rights. He said that these “natural rights” were life, liberty, and property. He also said that the evildoers who conspired to deprive others of their life, liberty, or property ruined the good life of the state of nature (Locke). The only way to protect these rights is by joining together to form governments. The power of government, then, stems from the consent of the governed, which entrust the government with responsibility for protecting

The tasks that are necessary for the people are necessary because they will be serving a need of the people. Continuing on my example from before, the state’s authority is being used to coerce rioters not because the state simply does not like them. The state is coercing the rioters because it is something that must be done. Stopping the rioters is necessary because if left unattended, they will cause extensive harm to the physical community as well as to their fellow citizens. Stopping the rioters would is a task that would require the obedience of the people. Using coercive force to stop the rioters will be serving the needs of the people. As such, the state has the right to be obeyed. The invaders, on the other hand, do not because they are not performing a task that will serve the need of the

Justice is the purpose of government and civil society. If government allows or encourages strong groups to combine together against the weak, liberty will be lost and anarchy will result. And the condition of anarchy tempts even strong individuals and groups to submit to any form of government, no matter how bad, which they hope will protect them as well as the weak.

Ones’ political and social agreement derives from society. Human nature leads to a state of nature, pre-government, which then the social contract rectifies, creating the purpose of government. Before understanding how the

law and order to encourage social stability. Governments include a part of the state, with

Richard Millsap, author of the seventy-plus page article, Why Study the Constitution and National & State Politics, says, “Our goal is to create a society that maximizes liberty & freedom & human rights; we want a better world” (page 2), which can be seen one of the countless overall themes of the article. In the quote, Millsap is conveying that the objective of government should be creating a world that is all-around better for the citizens that live in it. One of the ways to better the world is to study government.

are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence ,indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

In the international arena, there is no hierarchical rule to keep states in line or behaved; meaning that the international system is constantly in anarchy, aka the state of nature. This lack of rule enforcement puts states in a constant state of war, in a constant state where they need to stay on guard and in a tactical advantage otherwise the safety and well being of their state will be in jeopardy. In this scenario, the state’s number one priority is to protect itself and act in its self interest when need be, despite if it would typically be deemed immoral. (Donnelly 20)

Socrates believed that anarchy against your state was never excusable or a reasonable action. He explains to Crito that laws that are created should be followed by those living in the state. That also does not mean that every law created is just and should not be questioned, or that there is never a law that should not be followed. On the contrary you can lobby for the change of an unjust law. Without the state you would not have clean water, education, and be left defenseless. While you are there to help in the betterment of your state, it is also there for your benefit. On the other hand, Mills philosophy is also an important one to examine. The state should be there to ensure your personal liberties are never stripped from you, this is true,

Grotius located sovereignty within the people. People could control their lives so long as they willed it and while a state or country may have, at times, come under the control of another by way of just war or by being conquered, they could take back control of their lives. One could have made the argument though that sovereignty lied within god. Since in some cases a ruler could not be brought to justice through the “system”, it would become gods will to punish the spiritually appointed ruler by a means of depriving the ruler of his subjects essentially giving sovereignty back to the

According to the natural right theory, the state of nature is the original condition of human beings in regard to any common authority. In the state of nature, according to Thomas Hobbes, each individual has a right to everything, even the body/life of the other. The state of nature can lead to the state of moral chaos. Moral chaos produces physical chaos or war, thus the state of war, the war of all against all. The reason this is because no one has any connection to the other, everyone has the right to everything, just to satisfy his or her appetites. There is no rational rule to resolve conflict, in order to get around this you have to get an agreement, thus the need for a social contact.

Philosophers have struggled with determining the proper role of government. In the absence of government and laws, people could do whatever they wanted, and some of them would try to slaughter others and steal their property. This is the state called anarchy. People have realized that the safety of the people and the country would be in jeopardy in such a state. Thus, it is necessary for a country to have a government and/or ruler. However, a ruler must not have absolute power nor lack authority. But the protection of the people and the country alone is not enough for a country to prosper. The property and the natural rights of the people and the government must also be protected. Thus, the proper role of government is to protect the

Society at its core is a check to humanity. It is a trade or barter as anything else is. We are bound to it by contracts called laws that we never signed, things we never agreed to, but for the stake of the status quo, for the sake of others and their opinions. We are acted upon by society for the greatest good, summa bonum, for that is worth the loss of freedom. Liberty and freedom are not the same, liberty is the right to do so, while freedom is the ability to do so. Laws are to protect the liberty of citizens, while society is to protect the stability of humanity. Society will keep the barbarians out, those who will refuse laws, but also keep the citizens in, to guarantee the integrity and continuation of the social contract. There

The fine line between obeying the law and not obeying it. Obeying the law kind of makes the world safer. When you don't obey a law and therefore caught doing the crime; you will be charged and possibly sentenced to a place where you are no longer free to do as you please. When you obey the law you get to do as you please with your life as long as you follow the laws. Laws are put into motion to create a safe environment for everyone to live in. No one should have to be worried about their lives everyday; but there are accidents everyday in which lives are lost.