An Enquiry [4th Ed.] Concerning the Principles of Political Justice and Its Influence on General Virtue, Fourth Edition |
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Book 8, Chapter 10 : Reflections
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER X REFLECTIONS I. Supposed danger in disseminating leveling principles. -- Idea of massacre. -- Qualification of this idea. -- Skeptical suggestions -- Means of suppressing inquiry. -- Nature of political science. -- II. Political duties, 1. of those who are qualified for public instructors -- temper -- sincerity. -- Pernicious effects of dissimulation in this case. -- 2. of the rich and great. -- Many of them may be expected to be advocates of equality. -- Conduct which their interest as a body prescribes. -- 3. of the friends of equality in general. -- Importance of a mild and benevolent proceeding. -- III. Connection between liberty and equality. -- Cause of equality will perpetually advance. -- Symptoms of its progress. -- Idea of its future success. -- Conclusion. (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Book 8, Chapter 09, Appendix 1 : Appendix. Of Health and the Prolongation of Human Life
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER IX APPENDIX OF HEALTH, AND THE PROLONGATION OF HUMAN LIFE Omnipotence of mind. -- Application of this principle to the animal frame. -- Causes of decrepitude. -- Theory of voluntary and involuntary action. -- Present utility of these reasoning. -- Recapitulation. -- Application to the future state of society. The question respecting population is, in some degree, connected, with the subject of health and longevity. It may therefore be allowed us, to make use of this occasion, for indulging in certain speculations upon this article. What follows, must be considered, as eminently a deviation into the land of conjecture. If it be false, it leaves the system to which it is appended, in all sound reason, as impregnable as ever. Let us then, in this place, return to the sublime conjecture of Franklin, a man habitually conversant with t... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Book 8, Chapter 09 : Objection to this System from the Principle of Population
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER IX OBJECTION TO THIS SYSTEM FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION Objection stated. -- Opinions that have been entertained on this subject. -- Population adapted to find own level. -- Precautions that have been exerted to check it. -- Conclusion. An author who has speculated widely upon subjects of government1 has recommended equality, (or, which was rather his idea, a community of goods to be maintained by the vigilance of the state), as a complete remedy, for the usurpation and distress which are, at present, the most powerful enemies of human kind; for the vises which infect education in some instances, and the neglect it encounters in more; for all the turbulence of passion, and all the injustice of selfishness. But, after having exhibited this brilliant picture, he finds an argument that demolishes the whole, and restores hi... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Book 8, Chapter 8, Appendix 1 : Of Co-operation, Cohabitation and Marriage
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER VIII APPENDIX OF COOPERATION, COHABITATION AND MARRIAGE Advantages of social refinement -- of individuality. -- Evils of cooperation. -- Ideas of the future state of cooperation. -- Its limits. -- Its legitimate province. -- Evils of cohabitation -- of the received system of marriage. -- Consequences of their abolition. -- A promiscuous commerce of the sexes estimated. -- Inconstancy estimated. -- Education need not be a sybject of positive institution. -- Of the division of labor. It is a curious subject, to inquire into the due medium between individuality and concert. On the one hand, it is to be observed that human beings are formed for society. Without society, we shall probably be deprived of the most eminent enjoyments of which our nature is susceptible. In society, no man, possessing the... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Book 8, Chapter 08 : Objection to this System from the Inflexibility of its Restrictions
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER VIII OBJECTION TO THIS SYSTEM FROM THE INFLEXIBILITY OF ITS RESTRICTIONS Objection stated. -- Natural and moral independence distinguished. -- Tendency of restriction properly so called. -- The system of equality not a system of restriction. An objection that has often been urged against a system of equality, is, "that it is inconsistent with personal independence. Every man, according to this scheme, is a passive instrument in the hands of the community. He must eat and drink, and play and sleep, at the bidding of others. He has no habitation, no period at which he can retreat into himself, and not ask another's leave. He has nothing that he can call his own, not even his time or his person. Under the appearance of a perfect freedom from oppression and tyranny, he is in reality subjected to this most unlimited slavery." To understand the force o... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Of Legislation
BOOK III Principles of Government CHAPTER V OF LEGISLATION Society can declare and interpret, but cannot enact. - Its authority only executive. HAVING thus far investigated the nature of political functions, it seems necessary that some explanation should be given upon the subject of legislation. "Who is it that has authority to make laws? What are the characteristics of that man or body of men in whom the tremendous faculty is vested of prescribing to the rest of the community what they are to perform, and what to avoid?" The answer to these questions is exceedingly simple: Legislation, as it has been usually understood, is not an affair of human competence. Immutable reason is the true legislator, and her decrees it behooves us to investi... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
History of Political Society
CHAP. II. HISTORY OF POLITICAL SOCIETY War.--Frequency of war--among the ancients--among the moderns-- the French--the English--Causes of war.--Penal laws.--Despotism. --Deduction from the whole. THE extent of the influence of political systems will be forcibly illustrated by a concise recollection of the records of political society. It is an old observation that the history of mankind is little else than a record of crimes. Society comes recommended to us by its tendency to supply our wants and promote our well being. If we consider the human species, as they were found previously to the existence of political society, it is difficult not to be impressed with emotions of melancholy. But, though the chief purpose of society is to defend us... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Of Resistance
BOOK IV OF THE OPERATION OF OPINION IN SOCIETIES AND INDIVIDUALS CHAPTER I OF RESISTANCE Subject of the fourth book. - First branch of the subject. - Question of resistance stated. - Resistance of a nation. - Ambiguity of the term nation. - Case of a military subjection considered. - Resistance of a majority - of a minority. - Further ambiguity of the term nation. Nature of liberty. - Remark. - Resistance of the individual. HAVING now made some progress in the inquiry originally instituted, it may be proper to look back, and consider the point at which we are arrived. We have examined, in the first place, the powers of man as they relate to the subject of which we treat; secondly, we have delineated the principles of society, as founded in ... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Of Political Associations
BOOK IV OF THE OPERATION OF OPINION IN SOCIETIES AND INDIVIDUALS CHAPTER III Of Political Associations Arguments in their favor. - Answer. - Associations put a part for the whole - are attended with party spirit - declamation - cabal - con- tentious disputes - restlessness - and tumult. - Utility of social com- munication. - Exception in favor of associations. - Another excep- tion. - Conclusion. A QUESTION suggests itself under this branch of inquiry, respecting the propriety of associations among the people at large for the purpose of operating a change in their political institutions. Many arguments have been alleged in favor of such associations. It has been said "that they are necessary to give effect to public opinion, which, in its i... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Of Titles
BOOK V Of Legislative and Executive Power CHAPTER XII OF TITLES Their origin and history. - Their miserable absurdity. - Truth the only adequate reward of merit. THE case of mere titles is so absurd that it would deserve to be treated only with ridicule were it not for the serious mischiefs they impose on mankind. The feudal system was a ferocious monster, devouring, wherever it came, all that the friend of humanity regards with attachment and love. The system of titles appears under a different form. The monster is at length destroyed, and they who followed in his train, and fattened upon the carcasses of those he slew, have stuffed his skin, and, by exhibiting it, hope still to terrify mankind into patience and pusillanimity. The system o... (From : Anarchy Archives.)