John Locke

Latest Posts in John Locke

Corruption is a Cancer, and It Can Be Fatal

Corruption is a Cancer, and It Can Be Fatal. There is no cure, but it can be arrested and controlled. 


The Social Contract: Who Needs It?

Let’s begin with some political theory.  Aristotle, in his great treatise, the Politics, concluded that there are, basically, only two different kinds of governments in terms of the outcomes for a society -- those that serve the common good, or the public interest, and those that have been co-opted to serve the self-interests of the people who hold political power.  


The Social Contract: Who Needs It?

Let’s begin with some political theory. Aristotle, in his great treatise, the Politics, concluded that there are, basically, only two different kinds of governments in terms of the outcomes for a society — those that serve the common good, or the public interest, and those that have been co-opted to serve the self-interests of the people who hold political power. 


The “Right to Life”: It’s Much More Than You Think

The “right to life” is a venerable moral and legal principle that is regularly invoked in debates about abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, and more.   The philosopher John Locke in his Two Treatises of Government (1690) was the first “modern” theorist to assert the idea of self-evident human rights, including “life, liberty and estate” [i.e., property], while the first public/political assertion of a right to life was in the American Declaration of Independence (1776).