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Similarities Between John Locke And Rousseau

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American society today follows a constitution in order to balance the power of the federal government and give American citizens certain undeniable rights. The bill of rights focuses on upholding three rights: life, liberty, and property. It said that instead of property the constitution uses pursuit of happiness (which is true to some degree), but upon reading the amendments the reader can see they are focused more on giving citizens property rights. The framework of the entire constitution is based off of the philosophies of John Locke. He was a very influential philosopher that theorized how governments ought to be. He put these philosophies into the social contract theory; since John Locke created the social contract theory that our government …show more content…

After Hobbes then Locke, was Rousseau. His social contract theory is based off of a topic discussed in class. Rousseau was a firm believer that when people had all of their needs supplied by nature there were no issues, but when populations began increasing and people had to find other ways to satisfy their needs, conflicts began arising. In simple terms Rousseau based his version of the social contract theory from the idea that nature nourishes and society corrupts. It makes sense that Rousseau would have had that idea and philosophy because he was alive during the romantic era for poetry, and the idea that Nature corrupts while society nourishes was very popular. On the other hand, arguably the best version of the social contract theory was written in-between these two versions. It was written by John Locke. He bases his philosophies on the natural rights of all humans. He believes every society should be focused on enforcing and allowing the natural rights to its citizens. If the government is violating our natural rights, then John Locke’s social contract theory says the citizens ought to overthrow the government. Our constitution is mostly based off of the Social contract theory by John Locke. One example would be that the second …show more content…

When it pertains to organ transplantation it is definitely the most controversial topic. The main issue debated includes whether it is violating the general population’s property rights to use a presumed consent system. After reading, several different analyses and interpretations of John Locke’s social contract theory, property rights are still upheld. The Stanford encyclopedia explains one of John Locke’s earlier works by saying, “property rights can be justified by showing that a scheme allowing appropriation of property without consent has beneficial consequences for the preservation of mankind.” (3.7) In simpler terms, this quote says it is acceptable for societies to presume consent on certain issues when preserving human life; henceforth, this strongly supports the presumed consent system. Another aspect of property to consider is the right of the individual versus the rights of society as a whole. Each person has the right to their life, liberty, and property, yet those rights also apply to how society functions. Additionally, when speaking of the right to property versus the rights of society as a whole Locke says, “In the state of nature one is not entitled to hoard surplus produce—one must share it with those less fortunate.” (5.5) Once a person has passed away they can no longer use their human body, so upon interpretation, the body is considered surplus. Ultimately, this means that while people are still provided liberty and

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