He feels that our instinctive character is to be selfish, only caring of those pertaining to us. The savage man was not an animal, but rather had beast-like qualities, creating a world of violence and constant war. Locke had a very different ideology on the nature of man. In my opinion, Locke views man through rose-colored glasses, Locke suggests humans naturally follow the moral law, (which can be discovered by reason) he also states that forms of government and society are natural to us, and that war and conflict that ravage our world, occur simply for the reason that we were fighting for what we believe in, and each side believes they`re just. Rousseau suggests that humans were simple; without speech, culture and mature thought prior to our social and cultural development.
On the other hand, the school of freedom or free will believe that the behavior of humans is unpredictable on the basis of precedents but it is a choice of an individual. He can choose to behave and act the way he wants to do such action. Therefore, free will hold the individual responsible for his or her action and behavior. Now, the theory of free will is subjective in its nature and, thus, rejects the scientific explanation of the behavior. The history is full of philosophers who are advocates of determinism, but the freewill school of thought has also been a subject of argument in the history.
Freud’s theory states that man is made of three parts: the Id, Ego and Superego. At the core, or the Id, man has nothing but instinctual desires to please himself. The other parts are merely layers to restrain the Id. Hobbes believed that human nature was tainted and that people would resort to immorality when left without order. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding represents society in a group of stranded boys with no authority.
A major movement was the enlightenment. The enlightenment was in direct contrast to these views as it brought about a caviller dismissal of the prejudices that Burke sought to protect. Furthermore contrary to the conservative view the enlightened individuals promoted reason over reasonableness, as they believed this would liberate man from the oppression as the result of old laws. It would be foolish not to write this essay and not address Burke’s views on the French revolution. Burke opposed the instability and the reasoning of the revolution, as well as it’s potential to increase in violence and decline into anarchy, as it later did.
Humans then incorporate both of these laws into human law, which is the basis for how we act. As the laws the humans follow come from God, they must be holy and should not be rejected by ‘disparaging the dictate of reason’. Natural Moral Law creates a connection between what is natural, rational and moral. Aquinas’ ethical theory claims that laws which are discernible through nature are intrinsically good because they were created by God. It is therefore known through reason that we should follow these natural riles from God, because the opposite is equivalent to ‘condemning the command of God’.
Machiavelli’s philosophy about the nature of man is that man as a whole is mostly bad and while retaining a few good qualities will lean towards his own self-interests when all things are equal; “that man has qualities that will bring him either praise or blame”. He also portrays men as selfish and fickle creatures as he writes, “..this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous..”. Hobbes on the other hand, views men in a “state of nature” as being completely self-centered and willing to do anything to get what they want; mankind lives in a dog-eat-dog world where everyone looks after only themselves and has no regard for others. Hobbes describes this self-centered way of life as being "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." He also shows men as incapable of conserving or prolonging their life without living under a ruling body, “augmentation of dominion over men being necessary to a man's conservation, it ought to be allowed him.” It is evident that both Machiavelli and Hobbes’ views of man greatly influence the way they think that man should be controlled.
To what extent is conservatism the ideology of Human Imperfection? (45 marks) Human imperfections is a core belief of conservatism. Conservatives belief we are imperfect on three levels. One we are morally imperfect they believe that immoral and criminal behaviour can be traced back to the innately selfish and greedy individual rather than to problems within society as socialists or modern liberals would point too as the root cause. Conservatives have a pessimistic view of human nature, some would even agree with Hobbes view that the desire for “power after power” is the primary human urge.
King notes, “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality” (King 8). Basically, King is saying that there are two types of laws that society use. One law is considered just because it favors the human beings personality and elevates him morally, while the other law is considered unjust because it demeans human personality.
“Civil Disobedience” Civil Disobedience is the act of knowingly breaking a law that an individual feels is morally unjust. We all have a moral compass, and a perception of what is right from wrong. Many individuals see injustices in our democratic system, yet few actually make a stand for what they believe is right. The United States was founded under an idea that “All men are created equal”. However, that motto was not entirely true.
Augustine believed that addiction was excessively evil, and as well as being a sin, conflicted with the process of free will. If someone addicted to alcohol or gambling whishes to exercise their free will and stop drinking or betting they often times cannot. This is, in effect, taking away their God given free will. Addiction today is deemed “evil” and accepting a higher power is often a step in overcoming addiction, showing testament to Augustine’s belief that an absence of God is what caused evil. Furthermore, Augustine believed that any misuse of free will was also inherently evil, the good use of free will is often called good will by