John Locke: Property Rights
Perhaps one of, if not the, most historically influential political
thinkers of the western world was John Locke. John Locke, the man who initiated
what is now known as British Empiricism, is also considered highly influential
in establishing grounds, theoretically at least, for the constitution of the
United States of America. The basis for understanding Locke is that he sees
all people as having natural God given rights. As God's creations, this
denotes a certain equality, at least in an abstract sense. This religious back
drop acts as a the foundation for all of Locke's theories, including his
theories of individuality, private property, and the state. The reader will be
shown how and why people have a natural right to property and the impact this
has on the sovereign, as well as the extent of this impact.
Locke was a micro based ideologist. He believed that humans were
autonomous individuals who, although lived in a social setting, could not be
articulated as a herd or social animal. Locke believed person to stand for,
"... a thinking, intelligent being, that has
reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking
thing in different times and places, which it only does by that consciousness
which is inseparable from thinking." This ability to reflect, think, and
reason intelligibly is one of the many gifts from God and is that gift which
separates us from the realm of the beast. The ability to reason and reflect,
although universal, acts as an explanation for individuality. All reas ...