AP Kickoffs
Monday, November 9
"But if a long train of abuses, prevarications and artifices, all tending the
same way, make the design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel,
what they lie under, and whither they are going, 'tis not to be wondered,
that they should then rouse themselves, and endeavour to put the rule into
such hands, which may secure to them the ends for which government was
at first enacted". (Second Treatise, Chapter 19). (John Locke)
-Summarize Locke’s main idea.
Tuesday, November 10
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure
reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
-Summarize Jefferson's main idea.
-Why would education and information help to preserve liberty?
Wednesday November 11
While still in Paris, Hobbes began work on what would become his magnum
opus and one of the most influential books ever written: Leviathan, or The
Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and
Civil(usually referred to as simply Leviathan). Leviathan ranks high as an
essential Western treatise on statecraft, on par with Machiavelli's The
Prince.
In Leviathan, written during the English Civil Wars (1642-1651), Hobbes
argues for the necessity and natural evolution of the social contract, a
social construct in which individuals mutually unite into political societies,
agreeing to abide by common rules and accept resultant duties to protect
themselves and one another from whatever might come otherwise. He also
advocates rule by an absolute sovereign, saying that chaos--and other
situations identified with a "state of nature" (a pre-government state in
which individuals' actions are bound only by those individuals' desires and
restraints)--could be averted only by a strong central government, one with
the power of the biblical Leviathan (a sea creature), which would protect
people from their own selfishness. He also warned of "the war of all against
all" (Bellum omnium contra omnes), a motto that went on to greater fame
and represented Hobbes' view of humanity without government.
As Hobbes lays out his thoughts on the foundation of states and legitimate
government, he does it methodically: The state is created by humans, so he
first describes human nature. He says that in each of us can be found a
representation of general humanity and that all acts are ultimately selfserving--that in a state of nature, humans would behave completely
selfishly. He concludes that humanity's natural condition is a state of
perpetual war, fear and amorality, and that only government can hold a
society together. ("Thomas Hobbes Biography." Bio.com)
-Summarize Hobbes' political theory.
-Do you agree or disagree with Hobbes' ideas? Explain your thinking. Try to
cite modern or historical examples to support your explanation.
Thursday November 12
The Proper Role of Government
Each person survives and flourishes based on their ability to exercise and
use their reason. For this to happen, each person must have the protection
of individual rights. The whole society will flourish to the degree that rights
are protected and individuals are free.
The word proper is used here to mean with man's life as the standard of
evaluation. A proper government must be proper for all those governed. A
society is beneficial to each member to the extent that they are free (their
right are upheld.) With the government being the immediate guardian of
freedom for a society, individuals will either immigrate to or flee from that
society based on the freedoms protected by the government.
A proper government, a government which is designed to allow man to live
his life to the fullest according to his nature (as a rational being), is a
government which upholds individual rights and does not itself violate
them in any way. The name of that political system is Capitalism.
(importanceofphilosophy.com)
-Identify 3 instances in which you believe the United States Government
would be justified in violating a person's individual rights. Cite an example either modern or historical - to support each instance. You can consider this
at both the state and national level. Remembr that anyone who works for
the "state" could be considered an extension of the government. For
example, teachers and policemen are employed by the state, so are judges,
and prison guards, and park rangers, and soldiers, and school bus drivers,
and congressmen/women, and so on.