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This 3 page paper discusses what John Locke’s reaction might be to today’s society; would he support capital punishment or not? The paper argues that he might at first, but further study of today’s society could lead him to reverse his support. Bibliography lists 1 source
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVLokCap.rtf
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views would be on capital punishment, were he alive today. Discussion In his work, he discussed what he called a "state of nature," in which all men were "equal and
independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions" (Locke). But there were times when it might be necessary to harm another. When man lives
in a state of nature he makes the laws that govern his community, and such government as is created has power only as the community grants it. In other words,
the laws and their enforcement are in large part left up to the individual. Thus, when men are living in a state of nature, they have the power to
punish transgressors who threaten the common welfare, but only insofar as "calm reason and conscience dictates, what is proportionate to his transgression" (Locke). That is, the punishment must fit the
crime. With that criterion as a guide, we can see that Locke would tend to argue in favor of capital punishment, perhaps even more vigorously today than in the past,
for he would certainly see in todays society far more violent behavior than he was aware of in his time. There seems to be little doubt that the crime rate
is higher now, simply by virtue of the fact that the population is larger. Locke would probably be amazed and appalled in equal measure by the changes in society that
have occurred; and that brings up another point of consideration. We can hardly argue that we live in a "state of nature," if in fact anyone ever achieved that in
the first place. The United States is probably the one nation on earth that comes closest to the ideal self-governing society of equals that Locke envisioned, but we are hardly
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