Introduction to Philosophy

Achieve Test Prep: Philosophy

Jefferson was a particularly avid student of his ideas. This is clear when we compare Locke’s inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the right to own property with the following passage from the Declaration of Independence composed by Thomas Jefferson: “We hold the truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Locke’s view of human nature was optimistic in which he believed that humans are governed by certain natural laws inherent to us as God’s creation. These natural laws include the rights to life, liberty, health, and property. A just society respects and protects each citizen’s natural rights; humans willingly enter into social contracts in order to create a just society with a certain authority and he believed that the authority of the state could be questioned, challenged, and even changed. The State of Nature: Assumptions and Questions Hobbes had a pessimistic view of human nature in which a government must be formed to protect us from each other. Locke’s view of humans is more hopeful, with government supporting our innate desires for equality, freedom, and tolerance. Locke also believed that humans are sufficiently competitive and dangerous to one another that a central government is required to ensure social order and protect intrinsic rights of each individual. The influential French political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that humans are naturally compassionate, although it’s true that this natural compassion is repressed or distorted by social conditioning, it nevertheless forms an important part of human nature. David Hume questioned the whole concept of the state of nature and argued that there is no evidence of people coming together by common consent from some imagined state of nature. The history of political state is one of conquest and succession, in which the consent of the governed plays absolutely no role. The state of nature and the social contract are no more that the fictional creations of philosophers imaginations. Using examples of repressive violence and unjust regimes throughout history, Hume argued that political states have little interest in the rights of the citizens. Rawls: The State of Nature is a Conceptual Tool In his book entitled A Theory of Justice , John Rawls put a modern interpretation on the social contract theory. He agreed with Hume that the notion of people living in a state of nature and then assembling to enter into a social contract were historical fictions. Rawls believed that we could still make productive use of these concepts by viewing them as theoretical constructs for understanding the nature, purpose, and authority of government and the state. Rawls believed that the primary value of society is that it be based on justice and his concept of justice is necessarily tied to the concept of fairness. For society to be truly just, it must be truly fair and this is where he introduces his concept of the Veil of Ignorance. In this concept, Rawls discusses imagining an ideal society that you had no idea who exactly you would be in this new society because everything about you would be hidden behind a veil of ignorance that would conceal your gender, age, race, talents, education, parents—everything that defines you as an individual. Rawls is confident that most people will want to be assured that they will be guaranteed fair treatment and equal opportunities, whatever their situation turns out to be. Rawls

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