Freedom And Equality Are Derived From Natural Moral Principles

This essay will aim to distinguish whether freedom and equality are derived from natural moral principles or whether modern political institutions created them. To determine this, freedom, equality and natural moral principles must be defined. Freedom should be one’s physical actions, which are free from influence and physically free to do what one wants; equality should be the state of being equal in terms of rights and sharing the same responsibility as members of the modern society; natural moral principles will be the believe of a higher law and teachings of God, the rights to life, justice and property. This will enable a fair analysis of whether freedom and equality root from natural moral principles or political institutions.

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He believes the sovereign should not have absolute authority in this society, members of the society should have the rights to overthrow the government if it is unjust or authoritarian . Political institutions should not be restricting freedom when it should be promoting freedom; the social contract is there to ensure the citizens have the duty to withdraw the support for the state and even to rebel if it is for the correct reasons . Jean-Jacques Rousseau shares a similar view on social contract, as seen in his work The Social Contract. However, he believes that a person has to abandon his natural rights to be free, and the objective of the sovereign is not to restrict freedom but to express the view of individual freedom and “force” freedom . The social contract does not originate from political institutions and that it should be there to preserve natural rights, natural rights that roots from the natural law. The ideal system is to create a self-regulating system that regulates by compromising natural moral principles and government’s laws. The degree of freedom and equality will depends on how balanced the laws and principles