PORTFOLIO: ESSAY

“The freedom then of man, and liberty of acting according to his own will, is grounded on his having reason, which is able to instruct him in that law he is to govern himself by, and make him know how far he is left to the freedom of his own will.” –John Locke, Second Treatise on Government

The many different ideas and beliefs on freedom and will have been around since the beginning of time. Everyday a new opinion or outlook is formed on life. However, a common ground between all the beliefs should be that a society can’t function properly without common laws being enforced.

The American society was shifting drastically during the mid and late 18th Century. People were moving away from the set traditional religions, and began to find their own beliefs. Certain aspects would be taken from the traditional religions and combined with personal beliefs to create a whole new outlook on life. During this time, there were philosophers, such as John Locke, who created a new perspective of liberty and freedom.

John Locke had a very interesting point of view when it came to freedom of man. He believed man creates his own freedom and will based off his own reasoning. Whatever his reasoning is, that becomes his law and he uses it to govern himself. Those laws let him know to what extent his freedom is and what all he can do.

An example that demonstrates how incorrect this theory is in terms of back then is if a man feels someone has more livestock than him, he can just take a few, and it would be justified because he sees no wrong in it. The world would be extremely corrupt if we followed this belief because everyone would do as they please, no matter how volatile or corrupt, and get away with it because it is justified in their minds. This would also give people reason to do evil and corrupt things because they don’t view it as evil and corrupt. People wouldn’t learn any lessons or suffer consequences, which leads to the destruction of the world because there would be no sanity or central base that is agreed upon.

An example of this theory in today’s society would be a teacher seeing a student cheating, the student explains they don’t consider it cheating, and the teacher leaves it alone. The teacher isn’t helping the student by allowing it to happen because it’s going to continue and it’s not going to benefit the student in the long run. This is the same as if I don’t get punished for something or it doesn’t seem rules are in effect, I’m going to keep doing the same thing and pushing my limits further and further each time.

There should always be some sort of rules or common ground in effect. I’m sure there are people that would agree with Locke’s theory and base their life upon it. I respect everyone’s rights to form their own opinion and beliefs. However, I feel Locke’s theory is nowhere near something someone should revolve his or her life around.