Clipmarks | publicola85's 'john locke' clips

Civil Religion and Modernity: Machiavelli and Locke

Thu, 08 May 2008 05:02:23 GMT

clipped by: publicola85
clipper's remarks: A great piece about the necessity of civil religion in the modern state.

Clip Source: federalistnowandforever.wordpress.com

Civil religion was a vital part of ancient life, religion and politics were joined harmoniously. With the dawn of Christianity, a religion whose focus is not on the state primarily but on the afterlife, the world slowly began to change. Religion was often used to divide rather than unify the commonwealth. Modernity’s problem with Christianity came at the dawn of the Reformation, where Christianity was used to pull people apart and start wars between nations who share ethnic, cultural and religious ties. America is the shinning product of modern thought; the brain child of men such as Niccolo Machiavelli and John Locke.

Tags: religion, civil, locke, machiavelli

Locke's First Treatise Chapter II

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:08:26 GMT

clipped by: publicola85

Clip Source: federalistnowandforever.wordpress.com

Having completed his introduction of Sir Robert Filmer’s work Patriarcha, Locke endeavors to explore the arguments made by Filmer. The first argument made is that of Paternal and Regal power. The argument for absolute monarchy according to Locke is far above anything man can think of, so high in fact “that Promises and Oaths, which tye the infinite Deity, cannot confine it.” This is a curious way of describing the idea behind absolute monarchy but upon further inspection one might find that even God cannot be described as an absolute Monarch in the manner in which Filmer uses the words. But if Locke is able to demonstrate that the logic used for absolute monarchy is faulty, then man can start a new with government by consent; Locke ends with “using their Reason to unite together into Society.”

Tags: john locke, first treatise, government, consent, regal power, paternal power, adam, eve, bible, genesis

John Locke's First Treatise Chapter I

Mon, 05 May 2008 04:04:47 GMT

clipped by: publicola85
clipper's remarks: An interesting perspective on the first chapter of John Locke's First Treatise on Government

Clip Source: federalistnowandforever.wordpress.com

Authors of the generation in which Locke is writing, and the previous generations are said by him to have “flatter[ed] princes with an Opinion” this opinion being that despite the laws which constituted their authority, and are to govern under, they have absolute power under the title of Divine Right. They are not restrained by “Oaths and Promises” because their authority does not come from those, whom they govern, or from the laws but rather from God Himself.

Tags: government, politics, movies, john locke, england, enlightenment, liberal, conservative