Plato and Aristotle believed that a fear did, run though liberals as they viewed democracy as a system of rule by the masses, thus an implication of individualism; seeing society as not as single individual entities but rather a collection of individual groups, possessing opposing interest. This in turn leads to Ortega y Gassets warning of the arrival of mass democracy, which had lead to the overthrowing of civilized society and moral order. As a consequence allowing authoritarian rulers come to power, appealing to the basest instincts of the masses; ‘mobocracy’. This therefore is a fear and reservation most liberals have towards democracy. ‘Liberal democracy’ embodies a whole range of doctrines and devices that actually seek to restrain popular rule and prevent government from flexing direct will of majority.
This form of democracy ensures that each person of the country is conscious and acknowledges the government’s decisions, as well as being part of the decision-making. The quote strongly opposes the ideology of democratic liberalism, but identifies with classical conservatism as well as elitism. Therefore, the concept of elitism contrasts the ideology of democratic liberalism. The second source addresses a neutral comparison of democratic liberalism and classical conservatism. The author of the quote, Louis Brandeis, states that by both ideologies cannot coexist in the same society.
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.
Veronica Bulaon Midterm Essay Conservatism Burke v. Paine This essay will examine the philosophical conflict between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine concerning the French and American Revolutions at the end of the Eighteenth Century. The first part of this essay will present an overview of the dispute between these two very different men. The second and third parts of this essay will present the main arguments of each man separately. The final section of this essay will briefly explain why Thomas Paine's views eventually gained more credibility in America than those of Edmund Burke. In short, this essay will examine both Burke and Paine’s views of human nature, natural rights, and the rights of man to overthrow their government.
John Locke was one of the major influential figures in the Enlightenment period. His great contributions were in the fields of Epistemology and Politics. Like other Enlightenment figures, much of John Locke’s philosophy was characterized by opposition to of authoritarianism. He advocated that each person should use his reason to search for truth rather than to simply accept the opinion of the authorities or be subject to superstition. John Locke’s political ideas were based on the social contract theory that which had earlier been postulated by Thomas Hobbes, though his political ideas were directly opposed to those of Hobbes, as Ochieng’ Odhiambo Writes, “ Locke’s Political Philosophy is critical of Hobbes theory that the State of Nature is as state of war of all against all.”[4] Locke’s political ideas are found in his two major works on politics: the First Treatise of
Ayn Rand had strong political and social views. Her book Anthem depicts what she thinks of the world and its society. The thought of living in a collective society seems scary just reading about it. Ayn is obviously against collectivism, and strongly believes in individualism. Ayn is strongly behind the idea that the world will one day fall into a society where collectivism will take over.
All men have the right to be free and by forming a social contract, a nation can be brought together. He enforced the idea of a republic and that the people under ruling should have a part of the leadership governing how they live and that if government abused its powers ranging from law to tyranny they should be overthrown. Locke helped form the basis of modern liberalism, we use today. One of Locke’s main ideas was that men were born with a blank slate in a ‘state of nature’, and could distinguish right from wrong. He believed that man inherently had an understanding of goodness.
The reason why one has a duty to obey the government (when one does) is that such obedience maximizes society’s total utility. Hume was a Tory. The idea that legitimate government depends on the consent of the governed was popular among the Whigs. At the very beginning of his essay, Hume seems to agree with the social contract idea if it is understood as a thesis about how the very first governments arose in the distant past. But defenders of the social contract idea seem to think that present government depends on a contract among the people.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” said by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton describes exactly what happened in George Orwell's world of Nineteen Eighty-Four. In today's modern society one can see some of the characteristics of Orwell's dystopia. These characteristics suggest that while many saw novels like Nineteen Eighty-Four as, "attractive to the primarily fringe thinkers" (Science) they are still relative to this day. In essence Orwell gave signs through his novel so that people of the world can avoid destruction brought on by their own government like that of Hitler and Stalin. Gwyneth Roberts says in her article about Nineteen Eighty-Four that, “Some of Orwell’s Newspeak vocabulary (Newspeak itself, Big Brother, doublethink) has entered the English language; certainly his vision of a drab totalitarian future has entered the general consciousness, although it is difficult to know whether his warning [have] been fully understood” (Roberts).
The writers start off by appealing to his audience through ethos, and then later switches to logos. They begin the text by stating what a true government should be and the values it should hold. They go from sharing their views on what the idealistic, moralistic idea of what a government should do, to stating facts about how their current government has transgressed and oppressed them. This section of the Declaration is known as the grievances, and it lists all the wrong doings of the King of Britain on them and they make their plan to abolish his rule over them known. Through this they convey the idea that if a current government is not function as it should, it should be done away with and replaced.