John Locke Utilitarianism

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States are created on the foundation of rights, and laws are set up to protect the natural rights of citizens. The political philosopher John Locke built his theory of rights based on the idea that every man was created equal, meaning there was no natural hierarchy; therefore, we all have the right to "life, liberty, and property." (Wolff,2016,17.)This line of thinking created the idea of Natual Law that there should be a protection of humans because they are God’s creations. As ideology secularised the religious justification of rights naturally shifted to the idea of positive law, which is still reliant on the idea that there is no natural hierarchy because the earth common ground to of all humanity. Based off the needs of humanity positive …show more content…

Meaning individuals were only limited in their rights as long as their actions didn't interfere with another's purist to "life, liberty, and property" (Zalta,2016.) While the overall goal of rights is to protect the lives of the citizens of a state, there is no obligation to the state to interfere with the citizen’s private lives. Similar to the logic used by Locke to debunk the theory of utilitarianism, that the state cannot try to promote happiness, the application of the same argument proves that the state cannot enforce certain ideals of liberty onto citizens. Similar to the concept of happiness there can be no universal definition of freedom. If the government only enforces the majorities belief of liberty will lead to the violation of the minority rights. (Tuckness,2016.) Using Locke's argument one can say that the state has no obligation to create laws that will put their definition of liberty onto their citizens. As long as the laws and the state protect the lives and property of the citizens they are morally …show more content…

Author, Isaiah Berlin wrote in his essay Two Concepts of Liberty “what is freedom to those who cannot make use of it? Without adequate conditions for the use of freedom, what is the value of freedom? (Berlin, 1969,124.) The point that Berlin makes is the crucial one; there is no point of even discussing what liberty and justice if the environment that people are living in is hostile. As mentioned several times the state is the only thing that can protect the “lives, liberty and property” of humanity and the rules that it creates and enforces is what creates the environment that makes such questions about freedom possible. (Wolff, 2016,17.) The very act of transcending laws based on moral rights is paradoxical because it puts the lives of every citizen at risk, which goes against the rudimentary understanding of

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