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locke - Coggle Diagram
locke
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how can we understand legitimate political authority? rejects -> authority derives from divine authority. god created adam. adam has children .. those who are the inheritors of adam's original authority that he derived from god. whoever is in the line of succession going to adam, is the only one who has legitimate political authority
rejects because even if it were true, that god bestowed authority upon adam, bestowed the right to rule, and even if adam could bestow authority upon his offspring and the offspring can transmit authority and so on, here's the problem: it is not possible to determine who among all the humans, stands to inherit adam's original authority from god.
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either you accept patriarchal authority, or you accept whoever has the force available to lord over others will be the power that rules. having sufficient force to subject others to others will is not legitimate authority at all
there is a third alternative: starting from state of nature -> the condition in which there is no political reality at all.
the state of war
and here we have the plain difference between the state of nature and the state of war. which however some men have confounded. (have confused state of nature with state of war) state of nature is a state of peace. men living together according to reason without a common superior on earth. with authority to judge between them is properly the state of nature (state of nature is not set in which humans are disassociated with one another, condition where humans live together according to reason. marked by absence of political power)
to understand political power and derive it from its origin we must consider what state all men are naturally in. (have to understand it generically -> its origin)
state of nature: state of perfect freedom. freedom to order actions, dispose of possessions as they think within the bounds of nature without depending upon the will of any other man. (freedom has to incorporate indea of law)
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liberty is not license, licence is liberty without political rule and without law. everything is permitted when you are free and have license no so much liberty.
law of nature is the law of reason. teaches all mankind that being equal and independent no one ought to harm another in his life. law that governs relations among free individuals. no one needs permission from another human being
in the state of nature to omit the liberty he has of innocent delights a man has two powers. first to do what he thinks fit for preservation for himself and others within the permission of the law of nature. by which law common to them all he and all the rest of mankind are one community and were it not for the corruption and viciousness of degenerate men, there would be no need of any other no necessity outside the community governed by the moral law. and by positive agreements divided by associations because there are those who act like beats and not observe moral law, we who are prudent have to come together to form political societies. that is why human beings are willing to give up perfect, natural liberty.
law of nature binds us into one community. if all of us were willing and able to observe moral law there would be no need for any community outside the moral community.
if man in the state of nature be so free, if he be absolute lord of his own person, but also over his possessions equal to the greatest subject to nobody. if everyone is equally perfectly free, why will he part with his freedom. why give up empire and subject to dominion and control of any other power. answer-> though in the state of nature he has such a right, yet the enjoyment of it is very uncertain and constantly exposed to the invasion of others.
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if you have a right to self preservation (life) you must also have a right to the means needed to reserve life. right to self defense against criminals, enemies, animals. also right to appropriate from nature what you need to preserve yourself.
god, who is given the world to men, in common