POLI 365 Lecture Notes - Social Contract, Levellers
4 Feb 2013
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Cromwell: voting extend to those with interest in polity. Levellers: voting extend to all members, by virtue of their humanness. An arrow against all tyrants not necessarily philosophical inconsistencies in text? target is not the king, but parliament (house of lords) Making an appeal on behalf of popular sovereignty, as vested in house of commons birthright: all individuals fundamentally the same; no one should be excluded from politics, or at least, parliamentary representation. Parliament is encroaching on the public"s rights; they are acting paternalistically, just as the monarchy had previously; ignoring the people"s god-given liberty. Diversity as religious toleration diversity must be acknowledged and respected. Certain premises (moral autonomy of the individual), from which one derives other conclusions: historical. Reliance on historical documents (magna carta) or legal precedents to buttress claims. These arguments are less concerned with reducing conclusions from premises/assumptions, and instead attempts to inductively determine what sorts of conclusions can be learned from history.
