Essays on Liberty And Property

Introduction

Human rights relate to regarding people as those who hold entitlements that would protect their life, liberty and property through a series of reassuring institutional constructs. Indeed, without due regard to human rights, disorder is expected to prevail not only domestically, but also internationally. With that, the United Nations (UN) stands as the main organization that provides a covenant for all nations to recognize human rights standardized under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). To ensure that the rights of every person in the world with regard to their life, liberty and property stands as the prime mandate of the ...

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704) lived during the Pre-Enlightenment period. However, their philosophies influence and in fact introduced the Enlightenment period. This refers to a period of reason in which man was to think logically in arriving at a decision. The two philosophers influenced the thought process especially in the field of law. This paper shall compare and contrast the ideologies of the two Englishmen. It is essential to appreciate at this point that Thomas Hobbes preceded John Locke and that the two had the same leanings in thought save for the few deviations which shall be discussed in ...

ABSTRACT

There are many different philosophical ideas about the moral value of equality, such as democracy in which all citizens have equal voting and citizenship rights, or social and economic equality that guarantees a minimal living standard and educational opportunities for all. One notion of equality holds that all persons are entitled to the same universal rights and human dignity regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or social class. From a purely historical viewpoint, there has been a radical expansion of the idea of human equality in the modern era, just as there have been revolutionary changes in science, technology and economic systems. Plato ...

These letters by John and Abigail Adams describe the important political, philosophical, economic and military issues that were first and foremost in the minds of the American people around the time of independence in 1776. Abigail Adams in particular was concerned about the abolition of slavery, the rights of blacks and women, and better economic and educational opportunities for the poor. Both were strongly opposed to tyranny, despotism and aristocracy, both in Britain and among the gentry and the Loyalists at home, and thought that armed rebellion and a declaration of independence were necessary in this struggle for liberty and ...

Thomas Ertman identified four types of territorial states in early modern Europe, all of which faced significant strains, challenges from below and demands for change that finally culminated in the French Revolution of 1789. Even Britain, which had already experienced two revolutions in the 17th Century that overthrow the absolutist monarchy and established the principle of parliamentary supremacy, underwent significant strains and conflicts at that time, with demands for greater democracy in political and economic life. Britain’s bureaucratic constitutionalism, which had replaced the absolute Tudor and Stuart monarchies, managed to weather the storm more or less intact (Ertman ...

ABSTRACT

The United States was founded on the principle that all persons had natural rights to life, liberty and property, which is to say that the Framers of the Constitution accepted the theories of John Locke rather than Thomas Hobbes. Government did not simply exist to maintain law and order and keep the masses under control, but to preserve, defend and guarantee the rights of the people. By popular demand in the 1780s, the Bill of Rights was also added to the Constitution, which stated expressly which rights were guaranteed to the people and what the exact limits of government ...