Religion, Private Property, And Politics

Recently, students were instructed to write an essay along with a pictorial representation of the person they considered to be their hero. Since one student chose Jesus as his hero and submitted a drawing of the Last Supper, possible legal complications need to be considered before grading and displaying the assignment. An examination of First Amendment legal issues that arise when a student submits an assignment of religious nature will provide insight into how the First Amendment applies in the classroom.

John Locke was perhaps one of the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke discusses the move from a state of nature and perfect freedom to a then governed society in which authority is given to a legislative and executive power. His major ideas included liberalism and capitalism, state of nature, state of war and the desire to protect one’s property.

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

What would the American government be like today if it was not for the mind and political theory of John Locke? Some historians and philosophers believe that without John Locke our government would only be a shadow of what it is today. Arguably, one of his most important political and philosophical works was his Two Treatises of Government. There he argues that the function of the state is to protect the natural rights of its citizens, primarily to protect the right to property. John Locke, in many eyes, can be viewed as one of the father’s of Democracy. He embraced many of ideas in his theories on the state of nature and the rise of political society today. In Locke’s political society,

Locke’s writing helped inspired many, but impacted mostly the western philosophy (“John Locke: Biography.”) In Locke’s milestone, Two Treatises of Government claimed his revolutionary viewpoint, the natural rights of man and the social contract (“James Harrington Encyclopedia.”) Both impression not only overwrought in England, but also encounter the cognoscenti that formed the later American French Revolution. At the time of England’s downfall, Locke became involved in creating a clear objective for the government. Locke believed the government should be limited and should protect the life, property, and liberty of citizens. Locke wanted a government that met the needs of the people, which is what the makers of the constitution took into account when they set up the legislative branch. The legislative branch is made up of the Senate and House of Representatives. Locke was a long time influence of America, especially when he said “being all equal

John Locke defends the right to private property in Second Treatise of Government by transforming Biblical principles into Capitalist principles. Locke explores nine steps that stem from the Book of Genesis to explain “in a positive way how men could come to own various particular parts of something that God gave to mankind in common” (Locke 11). Locke believes that the unnatural inequality is perfectly acceptable. because he notes that some people work harder than others so they deserve more. The only way to ensure his argument is to guarantee that private property is secured by divinity, otherwise men can give and take away property freely, which includes the sovereign.

His writings had a great impact in the perception of the leaders of America. John Locke was an English philosopher who highly influenced the Founding Fathers. He highly believed in natural science and in the growing middle class and represented the principles of the Enlightenment. In an essay Locke wrote concerning human understanding in 1690, Locke denied the idea of native beliefs and argued that every individual is born with a blank mind and that it is the environment that shapes the individual. Thomas Hobbes 's belief that kings govern by divine power was rejected by Locke. He believed that every human being was born equal and that the surroundings in the environment was what molded everyone. Locke argued that people are blessed with some natural rights such as liberty, life, and property. Locke was the philosopher that exposed the concept of governmental checks and balances which later became the foundation for the U. S. Constitution.

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, ' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."5

In Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, he defines his view of private property. He states that the earth belongs to all men in common,

Commonly known as the “Father of Liberalism,” Locke has had a lasting influence in politics. Locke wrote many political documents, including North Carolina’s first constitution and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, but one of his most famous documents is the Second Treatise of Government. The Second Treatise, which was written during a political crisis in Europe, was a voluntary acceptance of order where the government respects the people and the people respect the government. This document, along with Locke’s many other documents and ideas, led to a political advancement throughout

In the Second Treatise of Government by John Locke, he writes about the right to private property. In the chapter which is titled “Of Property” he tells how the right to private property originated, the role it plays in the state of nature, the limitations that are set on the rights of private property, the role the invention of money played in property rights and the role property rights play after the establishment of government.. In this chapter Locke makes significant points about private property. In this paper I will summarize his analysis of the right to private property, and I will give my opinion on some of the points Locke makes in his book. According to Locke, the right to private property originated when God gave the world to

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

John Locke was a revolutionary thinker at his time for including the defense of private property in his Second Treatises on Civil Government in 1690. Locke sought to defend private property because he believed that private property was a natural right of man, because he said that every man has the right to sustain and preserve themselves with anything that nature affords to them Locke also wished to defend private property because it was the gateway to common consent and the formation of his theory of government. Locke’s definition of private property is vastly different then how we think of it today, Locke defines private property as: whatever a man removes from the state of nature which he then mixes with his own labor and combines it with

John Locke’s views on property and liberty, as outlined in his Second Treatise of Government (1690), have had varying interpretations and treatments by subsequent generations of authors. At one extreme, Locke has been claimed as one of the early originators of Western liberalism, who had sought to lay the foundations for civil government, based on universal consent and the natural rights of individuals. [1] Others have charged that what Locke had really done, whether intentionally or unintentionally, was to provide a justification for the entrenched inequality and privileges of the bourgeoisie, in the emerging capitalist society of seventeenth

Locke regarded humans naturally in “a state of perfect freedom to order their actions” (Locke Two treatises ex.4). Along with this comes unbounded indulgence of the benefits of law of nature whereby men “has by nature a power, not only to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men; but to judge of, and punish the breaches of that law in others” (Locke Two treatises ex.87). In addition, “it was not good for him to be alone, put him under strong obligations of necessity, convenience, and inclination to drive him into society” (Locke Two treatises ex.77). Locke views that the formation of government “derive[d] from God’s will” (Dunn 2003, p. 37) and originated from men’s need to protect their property as a collective, where a common