PHIL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Classical Liberalism, Wage Labour, Individualism
21 May 2018
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The state of nature
how people lived before they agreed to from state
• Nature has made man equal in body and mind
• If two men desire the same thing they become enemies
• continual fear or death, no culture, no knowledge, no sustainability
• Nothing can be unjust, he can get therefore he can keep it
• This agreement of state is deemed the Leviathan which symbolizes fearsome
power
Thomas Hobbes
• For the sake of peace we have agreed to turn over our right to defend ourselves
to the state ( a political power that we create)
• Everyone is always at war without this and life is short, poor and brutal
John Locke
• Why do people unite in a commonwealth?
1. For the preservation of their property
2. For the benefits of having an impartial judge
3. For the benefit of having the sentences enforced by power
• We have inherent rights that cannot be transferred, life, property
• If the government violates the rights of citizens it is no longer legitimate
Classical liberalism. Capitalism.
Liberalism = liberty and rights of individuals against encroachments by the state
• small government
• the protection of society and free economic systems from coercion and fraud
• Values : freedom (speech, the press, assembly etc…) Individualism, maturity
How to best organize society
• Everyone should be free to pursue self-interest
• Everyone should have the right to private property
• Everyone will have different talents, abilities, intelligence level, creativity
• Everyone should be free to mix their abilities with their means of production to
produce goods or services
• Everyone should be free to engage in voluntary exchange
Capitalism
Capitalism = based on self-interest and competition in which the means of production
and distribution are privately owned and operated within a free market society
• Private ownership of the means of production
• The use of wage labour
• Exchange on a free market for profit
• Goal is maximization of profit
Objections
• it is unjust because it allows for and even encourages inequalities in society
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