Our+Wikipedia

This is our final draft. If you have finished your section, post it here.

Intro:

The philosophical roots of our democracy originated out of feelings of opression from the restrictions placed upon the poeple by King George. They modeled The Declaration of Independence off of John Locke's beliefs as well as their ideas of a legitimate society. Their idea of a legitimate society was almost the opposite of how King George treated them. One should not get legal rights and natural rights confused. Legal rights are rights conveyed by a particular government, codified into legal statues (laws) by some form of legislature, and as such are contingent upon local laws, customs, or beliefs. In contrast, natural rights are rights which are not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of a particular society or government. Natural rights are thus necessarily universal, whereas legal rights are culturally and politically relative. John Locke and Thomas Hobbes are two people who seem to know a lot about the nature of people whilst having different views about it.

The concept of state of nature was posited by the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in //Leviathan.// Hobbes wrote that "during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man". In this state any person has a "natural right" to do anything to preserve his own liberty or safety, and life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

John Locke considers the state of nature in his //Second Treatise on Civil Government//. For Locke, "The state of Nature has a Law of Nature to govern it", and that law is Reason. Locke believes that reason teaches that "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions"; and that transgressions of this may be punished. This view of the state of nature is partly deduced from Christian belief (unlike Hobbes, whose philosophy is not dependent upon any prior theology), the reason we may not harm another is that we are all the possessions of God and do not own ourselves.

In our government we adopted the view of one of these visionaries, John Locke, because we feel that our government and society would support that more. John Locke influenced many of the ideas of Thomas Jefferson. For example, Jefferson paraphrases Locke's ideas in the Declaration of Independence, changing "life, liberty, and property" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Thomas Jefferson, along with the other Founding Fathers, rather than adhering to conventional 18th century political ideas, used the works of Locke and Montesquieu which were, simply put, radical at the time. The Declaration of Independence, which is often cited in the media as a marvel of originality, is a complex synthesis of the leading ideas in John Locke's 1690 //Second Treatise on Civil Government// and his 1693 //Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government.//

Philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke both believed that man is born in a certain state. Hobbes' definition of the **State of Nature** is based on fear and the brutality of human nature. He believes that every individual will act upon instinct and out of fear to protect himself. Because we as humans cannot control our brutal nature, Hobbes believes that we must be ruled by a sovereign. Locke believes that the **State of** **Nature** is a state of equality in which no man has more than another. Locke says that the **State of Nature** is governed by the **Law of Nature**, which obliges every man to remain in this state of equality, to protect himself without inflicting harm on another. Each individual shall protect himself and his possessions without infiltrating the natural rights of another. This defintion of the **State of** **Nature** is part of the foundation of our Declaration of Independence, "...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed". This idea is based off Locke's idea of **Social Contract Theory**, in which the governed willingly give up some rights, giving their consent to be ruled by a higher authority. **Social Contract Theory** also states that if at any time the government is absuing their power and taking advantage of the governed, then a full revolt from the people is to be expected.
 * Sate of Nature and Law of Nature:**