Natural Rights Movement
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- Category: History: American
- Date Submitted: 03/09/2011 05:48 PM
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The Natural Rights Movement
Societies change over time, and the United States was no exception. What social movement had the largest impact on American society before the Civil War? There have been many social movements throughout our short history, but what one that sets precedence over them all, was the struggle for Natural Rights.
What are Natural Rights? These Rights were derived from essays of the English political philosopher John Locke, (3) who is credited as being the founder of classical liberalism that is based on a political theory of natural rights, individualism, private property ownership, constitutionalism, and limited government. He argued that Natural Laws override man-made laws. That individuals had a natural right to life, liberty, and property, and that no government, can take such rights away. That government was there to protect these rights and if violated, the people had the right to replace its govern. (1)
Locke would expand on this political theory with his classical work Two Treatises of Government in 1690 also known as The Second Treatise, which emphasized this liberalist view in which he depicts the state of nature as a primitive society without government in which individuals are relatively equal, free, independent, rational beings that are driven to acquire private property. This moral principle would allow individuals to preserve their own lives and property as long as it is not to harm the lives and property of others without the interference of government. (3)
To understand what Locke is conveying in a Political sense, we must consider what State all Men are naturally in, and that is said, “ a State of the perfect Freedom so as to order their Actions, and dispose of their Possessions, and Persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the Law of Nature, without asking leave, or depending on the Will of any other Man. “ (3)
A State also of...
Societies change over time, and the United States was no exception. What social movement had the largest impact on American society before the Civil War? There have been many social movements throughout our short history, but what one that sets precedence over them all, was the struggle for Natural Rights.
What are Natural Rights? These Rights were derived from essays of the English political philosopher John Locke, (3) who is credited as being the founder of classical liberalism that is based on a political theory of natural rights, individualism, private property ownership, constitutionalism, and limited government. He argued that Natural Laws override man-made laws. That individuals had a natural right to life, liberty, and property, and that no government, can take such rights away. That government was there to protect these rights and if violated, the people had the right to replace its govern. (1)
Locke would expand on this political theory with his classical work Two Treatises of Government in 1690 also known as The Second Treatise, which emphasized this liberalist view in which he depicts the state of nature as a primitive society without government in which individuals are relatively equal, free, independent, rational beings that are driven to acquire private property. This moral principle would allow individuals to preserve their own lives and property as long as it is not to harm the lives and property of others without the interference of government. (3)
To understand what Locke is conveying in a Political sense, we must consider what State all Men are naturally in, and that is said, “ a State of the perfect Freedom so as to order their Actions, and dispose of their Possessions, and Persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the Law of Nature, without asking leave, or depending on the Will of any other Man. “ (3)
A State also of...