Philosophy
With the advent of the Scientific Revolution, there was an increased level of comfort in the society which led to probing the ancient notions or the beliefs that were long held by the majority. A majority of philosophers started giving out their own opinions about a variety of subjects like politics, government, social order, economics, and religion among others.
The Era of Enlightenment started with this new found curiosity about scholarly or philosophical opinion becoming popular in the entire Europe. The Enlightenment Era was a time period in the 18th century Europe, which was a movement where philosophers applied ideologies of reason in union with the scientific method to almost every single societal aspect. A few such famous philosophers are namely John Locke, Karl Marx, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Peter Kropotkin among others. Each of this thinkers held varied views about human nature and thus their philosophies or ideologies were different from one another.
While philosophers John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau can be stated as being on the same page in terms of their advocacy of liberalism as well as religious tolerance, there is a lot of difference in their attitude towards human nature and thus their views were different. On the other hand, Thomas Hobbes was of a strong opinion that all humans are intrinsically selfish and highly egoistic in nature and in order to control such wicked human nature, he believed in the presence of a strong government that can control the society. In his book Leviathan, which was primarily a compilation of his views on various things, he advocates something called as the social contract that states that the moral and political obligations of every individual in the society is dependent on an agreement based on which the society is created.
Contrary to this, Locke’s view of human nature was much more optimistic in nature as he believed that human beings were mostly self-absorbed and they go after things for their own benefit and satisfaction and that there is a strong inclination among the humans to improve their state, only if they wish to do so and lack of such willingness would not result in any improvement in any form.
The views held by Locke were more close to the contemporary form of democratic government. Instead of advocating complete monarchy, Locke supported the view of self-government and also such a government should essentially be more focused upon society and its improvement.
Like in the case of Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau supported individual freedom. In his book titled ‘The Social Contract,’ which Rousseau penned in the year 1762, he states that a government should be created by the people and this was greatly different from what Hobbes proposed.
Hobbes’ social contract was essentially limited to the society and its agreement with the government, and this was completely different from what Rousseau proposed. It was strongly opined by Rousseau that a government that is created by the people of a society would surely use the power bestowed on them by the people and hence was seen favoring an absolute democracy.
While quite a few of the above discussed philosophers focused on the agreement between individuals and the society, society and the government, and how people themselves can create a government of their own, Peter Kropotkin was another philosopher who was known as one of the founding fathers of anarchism. Kropotkin not only laid the foundation to anarchism, but was also transformed it into a theoretical and a political movement.
Kropotkin’s effort to institute anarchism on the basis of scientific theory is clearly evident in his magnum opus Mutual Aid, which is penned in the year 1902. On the basis of a variety of factors, he attempted in justifying the significance the solidarity and cooperative nature in the very evolution of humankind. His ideas were totally different from that of the other philosophers whose views were earlier presented in this paper. Fundamentally, “Kropotkin’s utopian organizational vision is embedded in his encompassing social and political theory of cooperation and mutual aid.”
Kropotkin basically supports revolution over reform and even refutes the existence of a state. His reasons for such rejection are very simple, as he opines that power, once consolidated by the state, would naturally exploit the individual and his freedom and secondly, the existence of a state results in incorrect division amongst the people. He strongly opines that the root cause for social disorder is the state and thus it has not capacity to solve social issues.
The above anarchist view advocated by Kropotkin is completely different from the Marxist notions of Karl Marx, who supports capitalism. A capitalist society as advocated by Marx essentially is something which Kropotkin’s believes would deprive the laborers from meeting their complete potential in terms of their development.
Kropotkin goes on to state that the economic system based on capitalism does not allow a worker to enjoy the complete well-being that he himself would have produced, and on the contrary, people who enjoy his produce continue to progress in terms of social stature while the worker has no opportunity to progress in life and he continues being a worker, the whole of his life.
Kropotkin argues that “inevitably, industry is directed, and will have to be directed, not towards what is needed to satisfy the needs of all, but towards that which, at a given moment, brings in the greatest temporary profit to a few. Of necessity, the abundance of some will be based on the poverty of others”
Having presented the varying opinions of various notable philosophers about the legitimacy of political power, society, and government, the rest of the paper would go on to favor the views of John Locke and his political philosophy.
Political legitimacy can be defined as one of the characteristics of a political institution and the various decisions of such an institution, which specifically related to the governing laws, policies, and even the people at the helm of affairs.
Locke’s interpretation of political legitimacy was more a normative interpretation as he begins his interpretation by describing the state of human nature wherein all individuals possess equal degree of freedom and liberty in terms of political authority. Locke advocates equal freedom for everyone in the society.
Locke’s social contract essentially believes in transferring political authority to the civilians who can eventually safeguard the natural law. He strongly opines that political authority is personified in every individual of a society and it is a pre-existing quality of nature. The social contract transfers such authority that is enjoyed by each and every individual of the society to a specific political body.
Legitimacy, in the current context, is more relevant to the civil state rather than the political authority which Locke does not believe to be an absolute thing like Hobbes. According to him, “no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent” He strongly believes that absolute political authority is essentially illegitimate as it tends to interrupt the natural state of nature.
Locke’s view of a legitimate government is one that is limited upon a consent, according to which the civil state is rule by the majority, who in no way can violate the fundamental rights of the citizens of that state or society. Any government that fails to protect either the fundamental rights or the interests of its citizens should be ousted.
This revolutionary ideology of Locke was much admired by the U.S. President Thomas Jefferson who advocated similar principles during his Presidency and President Jefferson’s homage to Locke’s views is pretty much evident from the Declaration of Independence for the United States that he personally is known to have penned.
Representative form of government was the one that Locke advocated wherein the power was held by both the Lords as well as the Commons. In fact, the government of United States is seemed to have been inspired by such views of Locke that favored separation of powers and this is evident in the American government where the power resides in three distinct branches namely legislature, executive, and judiciary. America is the world’s largest democracy and also the global superpower in many aspects and several other global nations look up to this nation which is personification of democracy. Thus, all votes to John Locke and his political philosophy!!!!!!
Works Cited
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Euphoric. Compare and Contrast Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. 12 January 2015. Web. 22 August 2016. <https://euphoricl0ner.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/60/>.
Geus, Marius de. "Peter Kropotkin’s anarchist vision of organization." Ephemera: Thoery and Politics in Organization 14.4 (2014): 853-871. Web. 22 August 2016. <http://www.ephemerajournal.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/contribution/14-4degeus_0.pdf>.
Haraway, Sam. Kropotkin, Power, and the State. 2010. Web. 22 August 2016. <http://anarchiststudies.mayfirst.org/node/481>.
Kropotkin, Peter. Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1990. Web. 22 August 2016. <https://books.google.co.in/books?id=eUK8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA114&dq=anarchism:+Its+philosophy+and+ideal+Peter+Kropotkin&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anarchism%3A%20Its%20philosophy%20and%20ideal%20Peter%20Kropotkin&f=false>.
Locke, John. The Second Treatise of Civil Government. North Carolina: Hayes Barton Press, 1690. Web. 22 August 2016. <https://books.google.co.in/books?id=FtSqUWRDyXkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=john+locke&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=john%20locke&f=false>.
Rousseau, John Jacques. The Social Contract. Haner Publishing Company, 1960.
Thomas Hobbes, Crawford Brough Macpherson. Leviathan. Penguin Books Limited, 1985.
