HIS109Y1 Lecture : Socialism and Utopianism
Document Summary
Elements that help defined the european civilization: radicals. Dominant movements: intellectual heritage of the enlighten movement and the consequences of the industrial revolution. Newton: the western mind saw two kinds of laws: absolute laws and positive law. If the positive law is brought more into consonance with natural law, the positive laws would be better. Rousseau: argued much of the misery in society came from the ownership of property. In the state of nature, no private property. Ownership is a perversion of natural law. According to rousseau those who own property often legislate against the collective will. Those laws enacted against natural law, are oppressive and should be undone. Ownership: fuels uneven distribution of wealth in society. The french revolution did not address this because it was est by the middle class, who owned a lot of private property. The calls of the revolution cause the peasant to revolt against the manor owners.
