Outline: Please write no more than 1,000 words (4-page) in response to the following
John Locke, selections from Second Treatise
Benjamin Constant, “The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns”
John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty” (Chapter 1)
John Rawls, “The Original Position” (selections from TOJ)
Judith Shklar, “Liberalism of Fear”
prompt: Many of the liberal thinkers we have studied identify problems that emerge within liberal societies, challenges immanent to liberalism itself. Select one of these liberals and identify what he/she sees as the primary challenges to liberalism that emerge from within its coordinates. Explain how he/she responded to those challenges. And, finally, provide your assessment of that response.
Please do not forget this part: provide your assessment of that response.
This is a paper i wrote for a similar class. However, I do not want to use the same words. So could you please rewrite it using different words?
In political theory, a liberal is a person who would label the individual as the basis of political association. Political association being a political body such as the state or government. Similar to religion, liberal all share a general belief that the individuals are the basis of government. However, many individuals have different approaches to liberalism which they use to support their beliefs. These different directions and expand as one elaborates on it, but they are all similarly connected to the tree trunk is liberalism.
Two liberal theorists are Benjamin Constant and John Locke. Constant’s main view is that the individual has the right to privacy which he engages in through removal from the political obligation of tegh state. On the other hand, Locke, believe that the individual has a right to freedom and that individual’s involvement with the state is limited to the state to preventing conflicts and protect freedoms.
It is Benjamin Constant who explain is “The Liberty of Ancients Compared with that of Moderns”, that the individual in society is private focusing on personal interactions with liberty, commerce, religion and government. For constant, the individual relationship with government is one in which the individuals relinquished political power to representatives in government. “The representative system is nothing but an organisation by means of which a nation charges a few individuals to do what it cannot or does not wish to do herself” (Constant, 20). In doing so, the government becomes powerful even if it is a minority. The tradeoff of political power to representatives is done so that the remainder of society may engage in commerce and privacy. Individuals are, “Absorbed in the enjoyment of private independence, and in the pursuit of particular interest” (Constant, 21). This is the lax view that Constant observe individuals in society to have. As a result, some individuals choose to elect representatives to participate while the majority of individuals focus on personal interest like commerce.
John Locke wrote, “Second Treaties of Governemnt” where he elaborates on his foundational belife that all individuals are naturally free to do as they please without interference and without obstructing or abusing others. The government protects that belief as Locke explains that individuals only enter society and subject themselves to political associations to protect life, liberty and most of all property “All men are naturally in… a state of perfect freedom” (Locke, 18). This state of freedom is political; Locke went on to say in the following paragraph that equality is reciprocal and no one individual has more than another. If all men are equal, then what are the interacting between the individual and political associations? The relationship between the individuals and political associatiosn varies. Political associations are to protect the life, liberty and property of individuals. However, Locke says at the same time that individuals have the right to be free from state interference unless the state is interfering to destroy himself or … to harm another in his life, health, or possessions” (Locke, 19). Therefore, one can conclude that Locke believes that individuals have the right to a laisser-faire government in which the political association intervene as little as possible except for when they are needed to punish individuals for infringing one another’s rights to life, liberty or property.
Even though John Locke and Benjamin Constant are both liberal theorists, each has a different approach to liberlaism. Locke was influenced by absolutism, republicanism and “the Glorious Revolution” of 1688. Absolutism had a substantial impact on Locke, and this can be seen in Locke’s firm belief that the government or political association should have a little interaction with individuals as possible leaving individuals fre as they are in the state of nature. The only exception where the state is allowed to interfere is when it is interfering on behalf of an individual in the protection of his or her life, liberty, or property. Since as Locke believes those are the most crucial aspect of an individual.
On the other hand, where Locke believes that limited interaction is the best relationship between individuals and the state, Constant believes that Indiabulls can ve engaged or recluse in their respective states. Being aware that individuals have the option to choose, Constant observes that in most cases individuals are most likely to elect others to be active in political association so that the majority of the society turns its focus to private matters and matters of commerce. Concerning the Indiabulls as a singular, separated from the political association, Constant sees an excellent power in the individuals and private liberties. Constant was able to come to this conclusion as he compared ancient liberties to his modern liberties. After analysing the ancient, Cosnatr concluded that they favored the power of the collective, participation in government, and public liberties which directly opposed modern liberties.
In conclusion, even though Constant and Locke fit into the same category of liberty theories, they concluded their beliefs on individuals from different sources. Although both result in individualism, the circumstances from which they create they theories led to two separate a=options about individualism and how it pertains to the individuals as a while and the individuals in relations to their respective state.
