Short Paper: Living Ethically through a Social Contract Olivia Harris ETHC 445N: Principles of Ethics Living Ethically through a Social Contract Scenario 1: The Mayor of a large city was given a free membership in an exclusive golf club by people who have received several city contracts. He also accepted gifts from organizations that have not done business with the City but might in the future. The gifts ranged from $200 tickets to professional sports events to designer watches and jewelry
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thrive. Locke believes that not all men are evil and sets the law of nature to be livable for all individuals. Locke does not follow Hobbes’s brutal state of nature by not allowing men to violate the rights of other individuals. Individuals create societies and give them the strength in order to prosper. By sacrificing natural freedoms societies gain stability and become prosperous‚ but society can only be created when individuals give up their freedoms and enter into a social contract. Individuals
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John Locke’s influence in modern philosophy has been profound and‚ with his application of experimental analysis to ethics‚ politics‚ and religion‚ he remains one of the most important and controversial philosophers of all time. His ideas and writings lived way beyond his time‚ and have proven to be the reason the colonies broke away from their mother country and learned to expect certain rights from their government. In The Second Treatise of Government‚ Locke defines political power as the inalienable
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John Locke was a philosopher and supporter of The Enlightenment whose philosophies served a crucial role in its formation‚ these ideologies fall into three major branches: epistemology‚ political philosophy‚ and religious toleration. The Enlightenment was a cultural movement that revolved around the use of reason and progress from the Scientific Revolution to address human problems. Epistemology supported inductive reasoning‚ a form of thinking in which one takes specific details and uses them to
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moral theory in ethics is the Social Contract Theory‚ which tells us “that morality is essentially a cooperative enterprise‚ and that moral rules are those that self-interested people would obey on the condition that all others do as well” (Shafer-Landau 3‚ 2015). This means that people in a society agree tacitly to the rules set forth by it‚ and that abiding to these rules is in their best self-interest because they will get benefits and not be punished for disobeying. The Social Contract theory
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What Role Does Property Play In Locke’s Political Theory? In Locke’s political theory there is a large amount of emphasis put on property. Locke is using the word property to mean all that we can own: land‚ food‚ water‚ animals and so on. Therefore‚ it is mainly economics which Locke’s work on property is concerned with‚ and specifically the “labour theory of value” which provides the role of economic regulation in his political theory. Locke believes the Earth was given to all men equally by
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Function of a Social Contract? Philosophers have been concerned with the theories of a social contract for thousands of years. Plato mentions the concept in Crito and in Republic. These theories have stemmed from the concept of justice and for our society to be just. I will look at the works of Thomas Hobbes‚ John Locke‚ Jean Jacques Rousseau and finally with John Rawls after which a overall view into the function of a social contract can be derived as well as any problems with the theory(s). The basic
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The founding principles on which the United States were established belong to the ongoing human quest for political and religious liberty. That quest has been the central theme of Western civilization. When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620‚ they were seeking religious freedom. When the American Revolution was fought‚ it was fought for political freedom. The American Revolution is inconceivable in the absence of the context of ideas‚ which have constituted Christianity‚ such as Martin Luther’s
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John Locke has had a great impact on governments‚ other leaders and equality during the Enlightenment‚ thus making him the most influential leader of that era. Locke’s literature - specifically his book The Two Treatises of Government - was the key to many of his contributions. “By far the most influential writings emerged from the pen of scholar John Locke” (Powell‚ Jim). In this book‚ Locke discusses the need for three natural rights‚ the right to property‚ life and liberty. All three rights pertained
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Enlightenment John Locke (August 29‚ 1632- October 28‚ 1704) was a British philosopher. Locke is considered the first of the British Empiricists‚ but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy‚ and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau‚ many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers‚ as well
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