Defend Locke Against The Charges Leveled By Rousseau
*** Rousseau tells us in the First Discourse (see also Second Discourse, 199 and context) that luxury (the development of which is spurred by the concept of “property") is perhaps the problem that leads to the degeneration of humanity and man's existence as a respectable moral being. Furthermore, the first person to claim property for himself is the “true founder of civil society" and therefore also the author of “crimes, wars, murders," miseries and horrors for mankind that all could have been avoided if only someone had acted to reject the notion of private property (Second Discourse, 141-2). Yet, Locke tells us (mainly in the Second Treatise but also in various places in the First) that the natural law (aka Reason) not only sanctionsprivate property, but indeed also obligates man to work the earth and appropriate it as his property for the good of mankind (see Second Treatise, §26 (among others)).
*** You should take the side of one of the authors against the other. To that end, your essay should focus on the argument of one while making reference to the other only as necessary. The author upon which you focus, of course, will depend on which argument you choose to make.
Defend Locke against the charges leveled by Rousseau that his political philosophy leads to the degeneration of mankind, to the harmful corruption of humanity. How does the Law of Nature lead to the acquisition of private property? That is, how is this activity (acquisition of private property) supported by the Law of Nature? What limits/ends does the Law of Nature supply to political life? How is the unlimited pursuit and acquisition of private property a moral good that constitutes the “Publick
Good"?
*** Papers should be argumentative essays, not summaries. Your task is to stake out a clear position with your thesis statement and then to support that claim with evidence from the text. You should always explain quotations in order to demonstrate the point you are making by calling on them. Saying "The author believes x. This can be seen in: "quotation 1" is not explaining a quotation. Again, your task is to discover the author's argument and to present it with explanation, not to present your opinion in light of what you have read. You may cite quotations parenthetically by page number in our edition. A bibliography is unnecessary unless you make use of secondary sources; simply use a clear reference to the book being used before the page number as it occurs in our edition (eg. (2nd Discourse, 131).). Using other relevant divisions (e.g.) paragraph numbers) may be preferable because more accurate.
Just take the reference or quotation in the 2 books I gave you. Thank you.( I don't have the book The First and Second Discourse, but I attached other book The Social Contract which also contains the First and Second Discourse part inside)