Treatise

Hume wrote “A Treatise of Human Nature” as a discourse of his ideas. From the very first page Hume claims that we cannot know anything. He explains, “ In examining several phenomena, we find that they resolve themselves into one common principle, and can trace this principle…

W. Jefferey Bolster’s book, “The Mortal Sea”, is viewed by many as an explanation of marine ecosystem depletion by the hands of the fisherman with a desire for more. With stories that end in such tragedy or environmental degradation, it often requires readers to place blame or vilify a player in this story, and that villain is most commonly made out to be the fishermen. This accusation would not be a careless one, since it was the fisherman that physically participated in this mass depletion of…

Would life in the state of nature be ‘solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short’? Answer with references to Hobbes. People are astounded by the opinion of Thomas Hobbes about the natural state, and his hideous idea has been controversial for hundreds of years. He claimed that if there was not an extreme powerful authority, our lives in the pre-moral world would be ‘solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short’. This essay shall argue that despite the instinctive aversion we felt upon it, the…

that he ignores the idea of how to address the problem of a tyrannical king, if a king claims power through a “natural law” his power is absolute and he has license to abuse his children or subjects. Locke attacks Filmer’s Patriarcha in his First Treatise on Government by examining the flaws in Filmer’s argument. Locke criticizes Filmer’s imprecise definition of fatherhood and points out that Filmer fails to support his ideas with evidence. Locke even criticizes Filmer’s audience for supporting,…

" In his Second Treatise of Government, John Locke writes “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” In this book Locke so perfectly describes the role that government should take in its citizenries lives and this quote is often simplified to mean the government should protect three basic natural rights: life, liberty, and property. John Locke wrote these everso impeccable words long before the Declaration of Independence was signed and the…

After reading John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, readers witness two vastly different forms of governing. One of The Tempest’s main characters, Prospero, perceives himself as the only one fit to be the sole bearer of power. This form of thinking may be due to his upbringing where he originally had a copious amount of control. Locke on the other hand, trusts people’s rights to be held in the hands of the people. There are a few examples in…

freedom as well. He believed in an idea called “state of nature”. “State of nature” means all men are allowed to “order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature”. In Second Treatise of Government Locke establishes an equality of all, disregarding the monarchy of his time. Locke says that the state of nature is one “of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one…

Who Should Hold Ultimate Authority? The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes and Second Treatise of Government by John Locke were both written in times of governmental crisis. During Hobbes’ time, England was experiencing the Protestant Reformation. Approximately fifty years later, John Locke was attempting to demolish the Divine Right of Kings. The Second Treatise of Government is written to show support of a parliamentary system, so it is obvious why Locke would not support a king or sovereign ruling…

One of my most famous writings is “The Two Treatises of Government” In the first Treatise, I disagreed with the common mentality that kings have divine right to rule, and are superior to all other men at birth. Later, I presented my idea of an ideal government. Laws need to be made for the protection of the people and…

In 1689, John Locke published Two Treatises of Government, a politically philosophical essay designed to attack patriarchalism and alternatively offer ideas for a more civilized society. In the Second Treatise Locke develops the theory of ‘state of nature’ which entails that all individuals govern themselves and thus govern their own property. “To properly understand political power and trace its origins, we must consider the state that all people are in naturally. That is a state of perfect…