Locke on Downloading Music

After his recent trial, Joel Tenenbaum was ordered to pay a fine of $675,000 for downloading and sharing 30 copyrighted songs. With more cases like this every day it can be interesting to consider how famous political thinkers might view the issue of copyright infringement, especially involving the internet. In this post I’ll explore how [...]

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Locke Introduces a New Era of Thought

            Throughout the readings on Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes, discussion centered around one ruler- a prince or sovereign.  John Locke introduced a new form of political thought based on the idea of separation of powers.  Hence, no one individual has absolute power.  In Second Treatise of Government, Locke talks about the idea of being [...]

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Political Theory in the Declaration of Independence

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to assert America’s independence from Britain. European philosophers, including John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, heavily influenced this document, demonstrating the significance of political theory because of its ability to inspire political action and affect the formation of new societies. Jefferson’s justification for independence rested heavily on [...]

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Locke on New Health Care

While reading a news article regarding President Obama’s healthcare plan, I began to think about what Locke would say in regards to this proposal.  Essentially, the article was a critique of the new plan and the basis on which it would work.  It simply stated how the plan would require all adults to have healthcare [...]

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On Consent

John Locke and Socrates talked about consent; how people tacitly consent by doing nothing, and expressed consent, when people state their consent.  I do not think that tacit and expressed are the only kinds of consent that we should consider. Take homework for example- I do not expressly say that I am not going to [...]

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Jake Friedman and Michael Barera’s group project, a website, for you to enjoy

For anyone who might be interested, for our group project Jake and I created a website that is similar to a “choose your own adventure” novel that ventures through the various states of nature we have encountered in this course.  There is a full introduction on the home page of that website (available at http://sites.google.com/site/statesofnatureexperience/), [...]

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Hobbes, Game Theory, and the BBC

One of my friends has recently been trying to get me to watch the BBC series “The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom”. So far, I’ve only watched the first episode (of three total), which discusses the implications of the notion of inherent self-interest and game theory during the Cold War. For those [...]

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Locke ‘N Load: John Locke and YOUR Second Amendment Rights

The political philosophy of John Locke greatly influenced our Founding Fathers. This is evident by the long passages of Second Treatise of Government which were reproduced word for word in the Declaration of Independence. Locke’s ideas go on to influence the drafting of The Constitution of the United States of America, the oldest constitution that [...]

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Locke on Palestine and Israel

There are multiple possible claims that give one title to property but two of the most persuasive are; who is in control of the land currently and who has historic claims to the land. I believe that this framework allows for a Lockeian analysis of land rights regarding the Israeli-Palestine debate. Locke specifically states his [...]

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Locke, Rousseau, and the Millage

On Tuesday, November 3, voters of Washtenaw County rejected a proposal to raise their property taxes.  The revenue generated by the millage was supposed to go to the Washtenaw County public school system, comprised of 10 districts with the money being distributed to these districts on a per-pupil basis. (Michigan Daily)  The debate over this [...]

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