John Locke And Niccolo Machiavelli's Views On Human Nature

Locke’s thought on having a king, laws, and a civil society under a social contract was so all men can enjoy and protect their rights. Where all men obtain the right to life, all humans have the right to live and life shouldn't be taken away from another human being. The right to liberty, protecting an individual's freedom and unreasonable detention. The right to property, a citizen in which Locke thought a human's labour was his own, anything created or made should remain that individuals as well and the right to rebel against unjust rulers and laws.

Locke is best known for his philosophical ideals regarding the rights of humankind- all individuals have the right to life, liberty, and property.

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.

This paper is about John Locke who was a philosopher in the 17-century. He was an Englishmen and his ideas formed the basic concept for the government and laws, which later allowed colonist to justify revolution. I agree with what Locke is saying because everybody should be able to have their own freedom and still respect the freedom of other people. John said, “Individuals have rights, and their duties are defined in terms of protecting their own rights and respecting those of others”. This paper will present to you information about his enlightenment, personal information, and how we as people feel about his decisions.

Locke’s arguments for liberty sound familiar today, but he believed that one must choose between liberty and equality. Locke’s argument that any government which did not admit to the principles of freedom ceased to be legitimate especially appealed.

John Locke known as an Enlightenment thinker believed in the equality between men. “A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another...by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty (Doc. 2).” John Locke stated this in 1690 with the meaning that everyone is equal no matter what their rank or power may be. They must all have the same advantages with the except that the person may want to work for someone else. “To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the

“All men are naturally born in a state of perfect freedom, equal and independence to act how they want to. The state of nature has a law that governs it. This law of nature requires that no one should harm another in his natural rights life, liberty,and property.” John Locke said that all people are born with rights and that we should work together to keep our rights.

James Madison and John Locke each created similar but somewhat different ideas about human nature. Whereas John Locke put more hope in human nature, Madison looked down on it with more critical analysis. Locke’s argument may provide few important points in general, but it is Madison who ultimately explained why people work in the specific way we see today and produce the government we enjoy. In fact, some of Locke’s arguments can be tied to Madison’s philosophy and be seen as useful explanations for Madison’s viewpoint toward self-centered human nature.

John Locke’s views were essential to the creation of equal rights and to the inclusive perception of the social contract. During the time when he published these theories; there was a great debate over what rights should be humanly inherited. The controversy ranged from whether humans deserve inalienable rights due to their judgment of good and evil, to who should own land due to their social status. I believe that John Locke is correct in his idea that every human deserves the rights to life, liberty, and property as well as his view on the motivations of a rational creature. These points can easily be seen in Frankenstein and Macbeth. In Frankenstein, this can be observed in the interpersonal struggle of Victor Frankenstein; how he struggles

No man has any jurisdiction over any other and each has an equal right to his Life, Liberty, and Property. Concerning life and liberty, Men are able to live their lives free from the demands of anyone else. Locke, like Hobbes, considers governments in the State of Nature with respect to each other.

To explain how the rights of an individual should be managed Locke first goes into detail about what an individual’s rights entail. Locke explains that a “man being born… hath by nature a power… to preserve his property – that is his life, liberty, and estate” (Locke). These rights, although

Locke’s main discussions of freedom took place in his work entitled Two Treatises on Government. These views were built upon the view of a natural state in which every individual maintained a state of natural freedom. In this natural state, each individual was free to make decisions and choose actions without any constraints. Locke felt that under this view every individual should maintain equal and independent and refrain from harming one another. However, the main problem in this concept of freedom is that fact that an individual’s free will can be constrained by the actions of another.

John Locke’s perspective on slavery demonstrates his attempt to create a utopian society. He believes that a man is unable to give power over his life to another person if he himself does not possess that power over his own life. Thus, Locke believes that because one does not have the liberty to take away his own life, he is unable to give this power to another person. After stating such restrictions, Locke states, “a man, not having the power of his own life, cannot, by compact, or his own consent, enslave himself to anyone” (Chapter 4, Section 23, Page 17). This demonstrates that John Locke believes that if one does not have power over his own life, another man is unable to enslave him. Locke’s beliefs place restrictions upon a

Machiavelli use on human nature were completely different from those taught by humanist from what they believe and taught. Though in most cases his ideas and suggestions seemed harsh anymore 01 must remember that these views came from the Italian unstable political government. The humanist of this time believe that an individual add much to offer. Machiavelli was often quick to mock human

The thirteenth through the eighteenth century brought profound changes in the political realm of Western civilization. Beginning with the Scientific Revolution and only advancing during the Renaissance, secularization and skepticism lead to changes in not only the intellectual life of Westerners, but also to their politics. At the forefront of the political debate were well-versed men such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. The influences of these men, though often criticized, can clearly be seen in the centuries and decades following their noted works. Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau shared many concepts, but the similarities between their theories end at the word politics.