Political Theory # 2 Essays

Political Theory # 2 Essays Political Theory # 2 Essay Political Theory # 2 Essay In John Locke’s work entitled, â€Å"Second Treatise†, he articulated that, â€Å"The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone; and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that, being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions† (Colie, 1968). The aforementioned statement is where the problem came from. Actually, the alteration of John Locke’s term â€Å"possessions or property† into â€Å"pursuit of happiness† by Jefferson has strong ground/basis (Colie, 1968). Explaining further, this is because due to the fact that, when John Locke utilizes the term â€Å"possession or property†, he does not only refer to the tangible objects that individuals own, for instance, house and lot, cars, Xbox, laptops etc, instead he also took into consideration a much broader application, which now actually incl udes â€Å"life and liberty† (Curtis, 1981). Since John Locke did not only refer to concrete or physical objects like life and liberty, then Jefferson translated in into the term â€Å"happiness† (Curtis, 1981). Jefferson articulated it that way to be able to convey the message that he and John Locke were not only speaking about material things, they were also referring to those â€Å"essential things† which may bring about happiness in the long run (Curtis, 1981). For individuals to have a clearer and better understanding of the aforementioned, it should be mentioned where this is actually rooted from. John Locke was actually talking about the state of nature here in his magnificent work known as the â€Å"Second Treatise† (Curtis, 1981). He was saying that the state of nature is where men are after the â€Å"state of perfect freedom, state of equality, state governed by rationality, as well as a, state of liberty† which further explained and made simple by Jefferson by saying â€Å"pursuit of happiness† (Curtis, 1981). Health In addition to that, the word, â€Å"health† has been removed by Jefferson simply because when he stated, â€Å"to protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness† (Curtis, 1981). It is very clear that the term life already entails health since it is a smaller topic or aspect which is covered by life (Curtis, 1981). It is done to avoid redundancy and eventually confusion (Curtis, 1981).