Philosophical Underpinnings of American Government The world we live in has been influenced by many people throughout time. The same goes for the United States government. The writings of influential historical figures still live on and affect how we run our world. Writings like The Second Treatise of Civil Government, The Spirit of the Laws, and The Social Contract, and their respective authors John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau are from the 1600s and 1700s, and those documents influenced Thomas Paine to write Common Sense, and eventually all of these writings together influenced the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Declaration of Rights, as well as the United States Constitution. But how
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John Locke referred quite often to the ‘state of nature’ and ‘the law(s) of nature’ in The Second Treatise of Civil Government: (“to understand political power aright, and derive it from its original, we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom…,” by which he meant that all people are born with certain natural rights, life, liberty, and property, and John Locke believed that the point of the government is to protect these three natural rights. The inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence , life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, had their beginnings with John Locke’s natural rights. The natural rights are also found within section one of the Virginia Declaration of Rights: “That all men are by nature equally free and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and …show more content…
He believed that the people should have direct control of the government rather than just being represented because representatives could just decide to do whatever they want without listening to the people they are supposed to be representing: “Sovereignty cannot be represented… Essentially, it consists of the general will, and a will is not represented: either we have it itself, or it is something else; there is no other possibility. The deputies of the people thus are not and cannot be its representatives. They are only the people’s agents and are not able to come to final decisions at all. Any law that the people have not ratified in person is void. It is not a law at all.”. He also believed that there should be state religions relating to morality. Rousseau’s social contract involves individuals giving up some of their power, goods, and liberty when entering civil society, an idea that is shared by John Locke in The Second Treatise of Civil
John Locke referred quite often to the ‘state of nature’ and ‘the law(s) of nature’ in The Second Treatise of Civil Government: (“to understand political power aright, and derive it from its original, we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom…,” by which he meant that all people are born with certain natural rights, life, liberty, and property, and John Locke believed that the point of the government is to protect these three natural rights. The inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence , life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, had their beginnings with John Locke’s natural rights. The natural rights are also found within section one of the Virginia Declaration of Rights: “That all men are by nature equally free and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and …show more content…
He believed that the people should have direct control of the government rather than just being represented because representatives could just decide to do whatever they want without listening to the people they are supposed to be representing: “Sovereignty cannot be represented… Essentially, it consists of the general will, and a will is not represented: either we have it itself, or it is something else; there is no other possibility. The deputies of the people thus are not and cannot be its representatives. They are only the people’s agents and are not able to come to final decisions at all. Any law that the people have not ratified in person is void. It is not a law at all.”. He also believed that there should be state religions relating to morality. Rousseau’s social contract involves individuals giving up some of their power, goods, and liberty when entering civil society, an idea that is shared by John Locke in The Second Treatise of Civil