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The Civil State In John Locke’s Political Philosophy: Its Relevance To Nigerian Democracy
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For
Hobbes the sovereign is not a party to the contract, he only accepts his
power from the contractors and he is absolutely free to act in any way
he sees fit, subject only to the primary law of nature that he preserves
himself.
Rousseau, another philosopher of modern period, viewed that
in the civil state each person gives up his natural liberty in order to
gain civil liberty in common with others under the supreme direction of
the general will. Rousseau’s own view of the civil state according to
M. Sibley, is that, “a legitimate civil state… implies that men have
given up their natural freedom and have exchanged for it a civilized
freedom broader and more certain than that which they previously
enjoyedâ€15.
Finally, the foregoing is the concise conceptions of
philosophers on the civil state. With these in mind, it is proper to
examine John Locke’s exposition of this topic.
1 J. Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, ed. T. Peardon (New York: Oxford Library of Arts Press, 1965), P.50.
2 Ibid. p. 60.
3 A. Appadorai, The substance of politics (India: Oxford University Press, 1960), p. 137.
[1] R. Maclver quoted in A. Appadorai, Op. Cit., p. 50
5 Herbert Spencer quoted in A. Appadorai, p. 50.
6 Plato quoted in S. Stumpf, Philosophy: History and Problems (USA: McGraw Hill Inc, 1994), p. 70.
7 F. Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 1 (London: Continuum Books, 2003), p. 225.
8 Aristotle quoted in S. Stumpf, Op. Cit., p. 103.
9 Ibid.
10 F. Copleston, Vol. 1, op. cit, p. 351.
11 F. Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 2 (London: Continuum Books, 2003), p. 415.
12 S. Stumpf Op. Cit., p. 193.
13 F. Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 3 (London: Continuum Books, 2003), p. 323.
14 M. Sibley, Political Ideas and Ideologies (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1970), p. 351.
15 Ibid. p. 396.
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