Topic > Classical Views of Liberalism: Locke, Rousseau, and Marx

Classical liberalism, as expressed by Locke, contains the notions of both intellectual or physical freedom (i.e., man's natural rights and liberties with respect to society) and economic freedom freedom (i.e. the right to own and pass on property). Regarding the development of property rights, Locke argued from the perspective of both Christian theology and the development of early man. Locke wrote that, in the Bible, God gave the world to the "sons of men" and that all men therefore have some sort of right to the fruits of the natural world. Locked suggested that it is intuitive that a man who consumes something from the natural world, such as the fruit of a tree or the water of a stream, becomes the owner of everything that is consumed and digested, and that man is also the owner of the one's body and skills (i.e., work). Therefore ownership exists intuitively, and the starting point at which something becomes one's property is when one extracts something from the natural world; for example, when a hunter kills a deer, the carcass becomes his property. The interaction between humans and the natural world, described as work or labor, thus transforms nature and creates something proprietary. Thus, combining labor and nature creates property. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Regarding the development of agriculture, since God gave the world to man, man has a natural right to the land, and Locke argued that a single man can claim as his own the portion of land he he can cultivate and use: "How much land a man cultivates... and whose produce he can use, so much is his property." Locke wrote that to do so is "in obedience to this command of God" and that since there is plenty of cultivable land on the earth, no harm is done to the rest of mankind through one man's appropriation of the land. Since land is useless and worthless without labor, the only thing that limits the amount of land one can claim is one's ability to work on that land; you have no such right to more land than you can cultivate. Therefore wealth could not, by right, be accumulated. In Locke's later history, population growth and the rise of sedentary communities necessitated fixed boundaries and positive agreement to establish and defend property rights. The invention of money as a medium of exchange allowed for the accumulation of wealth and the expansion of personal property beyond the simple amount of land and goods one was able to use. With money you would not be required, by natural law, to use all of your perishable harvest; you could instead grow a surplus and sell it, thus accumulating more property. Locke argued that the value of money derived entirely from the consent of men, and that this agreed method of enabling the transmission of goods meant that "men have accepted a disproportionate and unequal possession of the land". In other words, it is within the natural rights of man to create inequality, and this inequality exists entirely because society wants it to by recognizing the value of money. In many ways, Rousseau agreed with Locke regarding the development of property rights. Both men argued from the perspective of the human condition of pre-civilized man, with Rousseau offering a pleasing vision of "savage" man as self-sufficient, empathetic, and generally kind to other men to the extent that he had no reason to competition or cruelty. . When man first began creating tools and leather to meet environmental challenges, they followed.