Our Declaration of Independence declared: "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." -- The Declaration of Independence Despite these inspiring words, the battle towards equality was only just beginning in these first years of our history. This was especially true in regard to social class. Many of the issues surrounding issues of inequality after the American Revolution involved economics. The division of wealth and property was quite stratified in these years.
According to Hospers The essential ingredient in all freedom from coercion by other is one’s basic and inalienable right; it is fundamental to human survival and the development of the self (Machan 8). The most fundamental right is liberty. When an individual claims to have a right, it is another’s duty to respect that right (Machan 7). All claims to right cannot violate any other’s claims to rights. Negative rights to libertarians are essential.
Freedom is one of are biggest things in United States of America. The United States of America is still true to freedom, they do make laws on some which isn't right but we still have alto of freedom and without it I don't know what we would be. The next founding principle is life.The right to life protects your ability to take all those actions done for the enjoyment of life.”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
The Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776 was when the birth of the United States of America was established into a free country, and set free from Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson who is the most credited for the writing of the document, John Locke developed his own theory that all men are “certain unalienable Rights, the among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”. Locke, who was one of idea people who helped Jefferson the main writer, put everything together. The ideas from John Locke, and other pointers he put into the document set ways on how to run a government, and how that today’s government is run by “him”. All in all the Declaration of Independence is the foundation, and the birth of the United States.
Paine used Common Sense as a great tool to let the commoners and less educated to gain some insight on the role and purpose of government. Firstly, Paine makes a distinction between government and society. Paine states: “Society is everything constructive and good that people join together to accomplish. Government, on the other hand, is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own vices. Government has its origins in the evil of man and is therefore a necessary evil at best.” He goes on to say that “government's sole purpose is to protect life, liberty and property, and that a government should be judged solely on the basis of the extent to which it accomplishes this goal.” Basically, Paine is stating to the common people that they have the opportunity to form their own representation of government and do it in a way that truly represents their wants and needs.
In On Liberty, Mill theorizes the Principle of Liberty, in which he states that mankind has no right to prevent any other man from committing an action unless it is to prevent them from causing harm to others. Society cannot reject an individual’s conduct just because the majority of people find it offensive. However, this doesn’t mean that society can’t enforce certain constraints on people’s conduct through the law. This restriction of actions that impede upon the well being of others is necessary in order to protect an individual’s fundamental rights and basic moral liberties. With this being said, society only has the right to restrict behavior on the basis of justice, and not because society deems it to be immoral.
Hobbes believed that human beings need to choose an absolute monarch ruler to lead the people or similar to absolutism. He supposed that people are essentially self-center and driven by the “right to self-preservation.” If people have no absolute authority on top of them, then “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” would follow. In order to have a successful government, social order must be placed because people would feel secure enough to obey the laws; therefore, absolute authority protects people’s rights. On the other hand, Locke believed that government’s only interest was to protect people’s life, liberty and property. He has a positive view of human nature.
Civic Involvement – A Founding Principle of American Values In The Founders’ Embrace of Both Rights and Duties, Thomas West does an excellent job of explaining John Locke’s theories regarding government and citizenship. Of course Locke was arguably the strongest influence to the Founders and the formation of the American Republic. The first concept is that duty is implied in ones’ “unalienable rights”. One can pursue life, liberty, and happiness, as long as they are not infringing on anyone else’s life or liberty. One’s first interest is self-preservation, but “Lockean self-interest proves to be inseparable from service to others.” (West, 2008, p. 594) Locke also speaks of Biblical principles where a man born free must work for himself and not live off the labor of others.
This leads to a moral law, or a natural law, which includes the duty to maintain the rights of others. According to Locke, we are moral people, so there is no “war against all”. In Locke’s eyes, we should uphold Lex Rex (the law is king). We need the law to uphold order and assure we keep our inalienable rights, and no one should be above said law, not even a king. He believes in the commonwealth, and the people have the obligation to seek it.
People, by their very existence, are meant to be free and maintain a level of individual liberty. “‘All men recognize the right to revolution,’ he wrote, ‘that is the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government when its tyranny and efficiency are great and unendurable.’” Gandhi felt very strongly that slavery and oppression of people was wrong and an infringement on the rights of humans and human nature. People are not obligated to follow a government who is wrong or corrupt. Despite these individual liberties, people are also bound to each other by human nature and by the invisible barriers of culture and society. In their fight for freedom from