The regime in control must shield the right to life, liberty and property. When Hospers states, “libertarians support all such legislation as will protect human beings against the use of force by others, for example, laws against killing, attempted killing, maiming, beating, and All kinds of physical violence”, he shows this to be true (Velasquez 677). Basically, the government should be the force acting against negative crime committed from one person to another. If the peace is kept mutual between the citizens in the society, the government should not be active at all. The property of a citizen should be kept in safety, Hospers says, “libertarians support legislation that protects the property rights of individuals against confiscation, nationalization, eminent domain, robbery, trespass, fraud and misinterpretation, patent and copyright, libel and slander” (Velasquez 677).
The role of nature of government helped people to protect their rights when famous Enlightenment thinkers believed people could be trusted to govern. First, Abigail Adams grandparents taught her how to read and write, and was born in Quincy, Massachusetts. Abigail Adams idea on nature of government was that everyone had the right to have liberty and freedom because all of man has natural rights. Abigail Adams believed that man could be trusted to govern. Second, John Locke’s father got John Locke into government.
John Locke is greatly influencing philosopher in the history. His arguments regarding human being play a key role in triggering Enlightenment movement in western societies. His assets that God gave human the intellectual and rational, thus, Locke claims that each human being is precious value. John Locke argues “Natural Law”, “State of War’ and “Social Contract”. Natural Law means that all human being has three natural rights which are “life, liberty and estates” which are sum up with property.
HY203-007 Will Rall Women’s Rights in 19th Century America The early 19th Century ushered in a new era of liberties and freedom. Although the United States Constitution stated that all man is created equal, it seemed to leave out women. Women were always seen as inferior to man because of their lack of education, masculinity and political knowledge. Women’s rights only seem to get worse after the Revolution, as America’s political parties started to gain national power. In Sarah Grimke’s Letters on the Equality of the Sexes we can see that she supports Rosemarie Zagarri’s Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic book, because of the views they shared about religion and women’s rights.
1) Evaluate the ways in which the different approaches to Enlightenment held by France, Britain, and America impacted their own societies. Thesis: The extreme and different approach of to Enlightenment of the French alienated it from the British and Americans, and also led to the destruction of the country. Both America and Britain had a moderate reform, while the French had an extreme upheaval that led to its ruin. All three Enlightenments were based on the same concepts of reason, liberty and justice. Britain built their Enlightenment on ‘social virtues’, not reason.
On the political side, everyone is free to reject, to revolute and simply to say no. Another aspect of freedom which the American Dream stresses is the freedom of religion as the early founders of the American society have suffered a lot from religious abuse. Freedom of religious beliefs is a basic right for everyone, and any difference in religion cannot be a reason for difference in the gained rights in society. As the American Dream has given great value to the individual, the freedom of expressing person’s opinion and thoughts has imposed itself. Individualism that the American Dream has believed in has made people believe that as they are free individuals everyone should have an opinion and it must at least be heard and respected.
The American Revolution was the time for many political and social changes. This transition involved religious liberty and free suffrage. At this time America was being molded by the people. Chapter six contains articles protesting suffrage and religious limitations. The people had a goal to reach equality for all, in article three Noah Webster stated "Equality is the very soul of the republic."
John Locke, who is often credited as the father of human rights and liberalism, maintained that humans were free and equal, and that the ideal society was based on a social contract between the humans and those who governed. He basically employed the concept of natural rights and the social contract to argue that the rule of law should replace absolutism in government, that rulers were subject to the consent of the governed and that individuals had an essential right to life, liberty and property. As we mentioned in class, Thomas Hobbes was the one who started the theory of social contract and developed it elaborately arguing for unlimited authority in a ruler. The intellectual journey of liberalism kept going beyond John Locke with the Enlightenment, a period in the 18th century that shows intellectual penetration that questioned old traditions and influenced monarchies. Some other documents asserting individual rights include 1689 the English Bill of Rights, 1789 the French Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen and 1791 the US Constitution and Bill of Rights that all are written precursors to today’s human rights documents.
Censorship: Death of the United States Our country was built on the ideals of freedom, in our Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson himself penned “We hold these 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.” (qtd. in Ushistory.org) This idea of rights and freedoms were what formed the Constitution and our Bill of Rights. Freedoms in the Bill of Rights, just to name a few, are freedom of religion, freedom to petition, the freedom to peacefully assemble. The freedom of speech; this freedom seems simple enough at first, but it is probably the most debated of all the other freedoms. Censorship, in my opinion, is the poison to the freedom of speech, with censorship around, that freedom will die.
Why Democracy? Preserving Human Right: Democracies attempted to preserve individual freedom and to promise equality of opportunity. The U.S. Declaration of Independence expressed the belief 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.” The declarations added that the people may change or abolish the government if it interferes with those rights. People once thought that the greatest obstacles to individual freedom and equality were political.