Similarities Between John Locke And Napoleon Bonaparte

John Locke was an English philosopher regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and generally considered the "Father of Classical Liberalism". In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch. Locke argued that people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, which have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society. However, if a philosopher such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and a revolutionary leader such as Napoleon Bonaparte, would have examined Locke’s understanding of freedom and equality as the essential basis of any happy and prosperous society, Both Rousseau and …show more content…
In Rousseau’s document The Social Contract, he refers to an original “social contract” that terminates the “state of nature” and establishes the “civil state”. For example, in entering the social contract, the individual surrenders his rights to society as a whole, which governs in accordance with the general will: “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will…” (Pg. 72). Therefore, in Rousseau's explanation of freedom, there is a division between two types of freedom. They are personal freedom and social freedom. Personal freedom comes from humans' basic instincts and natural selfishness. An individual acts only if he benefits. Rousseau also called this freedom a “state of nature”. The second freedom, social freedom, is achieved when an individual obeys the desires of the “General Will”. According to Rousseau, all people are born free, but the natural freedom is not achieved until these people enter into a social contract. It is at this next point where Locke and Rousseau