Help!!! John Locke. Daughter writing paper on impact of Locke on life, liberty and

[chimpymustgo]

pursuit of happiness in his writings.

Any help on themes, suggested reading, etc.

[rjones2818]

1. I really like his First Treatise of Government...

Hell, I like the Second Treatise, too, but I always found the first more philisophical and the second more practical. You also may want to look up the Letter Concerning Toleration.

He's actually what the Founders were arguing about.

:evilgrin:

[upi402]

3. and published anonymously n/t

[upi402]

10. I like this quote;

"It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth."

[TayTay]

2. Locke is heavily in the Declaration of Independence

Particularly read the Preambles. That is all pure Locke, save the phrase, life, liberty and property, which is missing. Jefferson added "pursuit of happiness" instead of property.

Study aids http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/

[malaise]

4. Find Chomsky's lectures on Locke

at Oxford University at the end of the 60s. I have them somewhere but they should be on line.

http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/misc/johnlocke/index.shtml

Lots of Locke lectures at that link.

Add link

[rug]

5. Writing a paper on Locke is not my idea of the pursuit of happiness.

[chimpymustgo]

6. LOL. But thanks to all for the rapid responses..links...etc.

Kids these days have to do some serious deep thinking. I don't envy them. (This one's in high school)

[malaise]

8. That's great though

because Locke supported revolution if the government violated the contract with the people

[lonestarnot]

11. Poor thing not mine either.

[Superman Returns]

7. well,

He's great on LOST.

[VLC]

12. You beat me to it.

I was gonna ask for a spoiler warning, since I haven't finished the 3rd season yet.

[RestoreGore]

9. Hope you can get something from here

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/

[mb7588a]

13. important distinction:

Locke didn't say "pursuit of happiness," he said property.

Locke is all about leaving the state of nature and finding a way to protect/preserve/grow hislife, liberty, and property/estate.

Much of his work was on property rights, but what your daughter wants to focus on is the questino of what impact those three things have on the motive for joining a political society from a state of nature.

It's also important to note that many scholars don't credit Locke with being the sole inspiration for the Declaration. Spinoza, Montesquieu and other enlightenment thinkers had quite a bit of influence as well. The idea of joining a society to protect your life, and property is not unique to Locke. Whoever assigned this question is asking for your daughter to really dig deep into the enlightenment. Unfortunatley it is not as if Jefferson sat down with the Second Treatise on Government and copied it verbatim.

Let me guess? First assignment of high school political science?