John Locke: Property Rights
Perhaps one of, if not the, most historically influential political
thinkers of the western world was John Locke. John Locke, the man who initiated
what is now known as British Empiricism, is also considered highly influential
in establishing grounds, theoretically at least, for the constitution of the
United States of America. The basis for understanding Locke is that he sees
all people as having natural God given rights. As God's creations, this
denotes a certain equality, at least in an abstract sense. This religious back
drop acts as a the foundation for all of Locke's theories, including his
theories of individuality, private property, and the state. The reader will be
shown ...
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places, which it only does by that consciousness
which is inseparable from thinking.” This ability to reflect, think, and
reason intelligibly is one of the many gifts from God and is that gift which
separates us from the realm of the beast. The ability to reason and reflect,
although universal, acts as an explanation for individuality. All reason and
reflection is based on personal experience and reference. Personal experience
must be completely individual as no one can experience anything quite the same
as another.
This leads to determining why Locke theorized that all humans, speaking
patriarchially with respect to the time “why all men,” have a natural right to
property. Every man is a creation of God's, and as such is endowed with certain
individual abilities and characteristics as gifts from God. Not being able to
know God's exact wishes for man, Locke believed that all men have an obligation
to develop and caress these gifts. In essence, each man was in charge of ...
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consent was pointless, irrelevant
and would merely be an overzealous exercision of power. Pointless because as
long as there was more for others in the common store, one was not infringing on
another's natural rights. Irrelevant because property production or the use of
labor was completely individualistic and one should not be able to control
another's labor as it is an infringement on their natural rights.
There are however limits, as far as property and labor are concerned.
One limit is that of non destruction. God did not create anything for man to
destroy. The amount produced by any man should be kept in check by his level of
destruction. For example, there is a big difference ...
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"John Locke: Property Rights." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 5 Jan. 2005. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/John-Locke-Property-Rights/20118>
"John Locke: Property Rights." Essayworld.com. January 5, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/John-Locke-Property-Rights/20118.
"John Locke: Property Rights." Essayworld.com. January 5, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/John-Locke-Property-Rights/20118.
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