HUMA 1970 Lecture Notes - Robert Filmer, Indentured Servant, Continental Army
5 Jun 2014
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Chapter 3 sons and daughters of liberty. Patriots used the language of nurture and maturation and called upon the colonies to break free from dependence and subordination. Loyalists said that the colonists, like children, owed gratitude and loyalty to the mother country and risked severe chastisement if they revolted. Commandment: children honour their father, english monarchy derived its right to rule. John locke (who wanted to impose limits on royal power) rejected filmer"s analogy: two treatises on government. Argued that government was a human institution that citizens had the right to modify: theory of natural rights. Laws of nature endow individuals with certain inalienable rights. King"s power was limited by natural law; his powers were given to him as a trust for the good of the people. Legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed; if the ruler breaks his trust his powers should be taken away: stressed that childhood was a temporary stage of human development.
