John Locke vs. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

John Locke vs. Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Essay Example The differences of these two great political thinkers stems on how they assessed the evolution of society. Locke’s perspective begins with man’s natural state of being free but this freedom does not mean imposing itself over another (Chapter V). Eventually, people form society and to best protect them and their property, they have to submit to a government that will enforce a certain standard of behavior that will benefit everybody. For Locke government is good for everybody. Rousseau differed from Locke as he likened the natural state of man to that of a beast and differs only with his perfectibility or capacity to improve himself. Rousseau theory of man’s formation of society is unhealthy because it induces the people to have a new need that will make them compare to others eventually leading to a dominance of certain people over another. To avoid conflict, the prevailing class proposed to have some sort of body politic. Those who are powerless accept this beli eving that this will provide them freedom and safety when in fact will only make inequality more permanent by the establishment of laws. In a way, Rousseau can be said to be a precursor of Karl Marx’s socialist idea of class conflict that is precipitated by inequality in society. Locke on the other hand is the precursor of the modern idea of democracy because his theory of government in his Second Treatise of the Government   that puts forth the sovereignty of the people who chose to establish it to serve them is the same concept that we have now about democracy. His other ideas about government that it derives its sovereignty from the people that government by itself has no sovereignty and the people has the right to abolish it if it no longer serves its purpose and replace it with one that serves its purpose is the same idea that we have about democracy. Just like Rousseau, Locke also anticipated that the acquisition of property will lead into conflict. They only differ i n perspective as Locke thought that the establishment of body politic would best protect them by enforcing laws for certain standard of behavior while Rousseau thought that it will make inequality more permanent. If their treatises will be translated into platform of government, Locke would likely be more appropriate to America’s neo-liberal political orientation that man is basically free and only agreed to establish a strong government for everybody’s good. This is consistent with American’s value system and being such, it is very likely that Locke will win if he will run against Rousseau in America. With regard to policy direction, Locke is likely to oppose Obama’s Health Care Program as it infringes on the property of other who have to subsidize those who cannot afford it. Locke’s puts a primacy on private property and the idea of subsidizing others might not sit well with him. Locke would also likely to strengthen business by introducing laws that would protect it and its property. Rousseau treatise on the other hand would be incompatible with America’s value system but he would make an interesting case. As he is oppose to inequality, Rousseau will likely introduce government programs that will bridge his perceive inequality in American

THE ART OF ENGLISH Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

THE ART OF ENGLISH - Assignment Example By analysing individual works, the varying degrees of creativity and literariness can be observed. To begin, it is important to understand two distinct concepts: creativity and literariness. According to the textbook entitled â€Å"The Art of English: Literary Creativity,† creativity is defined as the skill level of the writer in areas such as â€Å"sounds, words, phrases, and overall linguistic form† (Goodman & O’Halloran, 2006). Literariness is a concept that relates to different kinds of literature such as those that are more traditional like poetry, short stories, and novels. However, literariness can also refer to other types of writing such as blogging, websites, pamphlets, and print media advertising(Goodman & O’Halloran, 2006). These two elements are very important in the process of analysis. According to the textbook entitled â€Å"The Art of English: Everyday Creativity,† in order to perform a complete textual analysis, a linguistic analys is, interactional analysis, and ethnographic analysis are needed (Maybin &Swann, 2006, p.429).Completing each analysis will reveal the elements that make up the degree of creativity within the piece. Linguistic analysis looks at the individual language elements such as metaphors, word usage, repetition, parallelism, etc., (Maybin &Swann, 2006, p.429). ... Each of these also helps a reader to take a more cognitive based approach to the text by looking at how it contributes to the bigger picture of human existence. The poem entitled â€Å"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,† by Emily Dickinson, is a poem that fits within the literary world. Emily Dickinson, who was born in Massachusetts on the 10th of December 1830, is considered to be one of America’s greatest poets and produced over 1,700 poems throughout her life (Pettinger, 2006). On the surface, it appears to be a poem about a person witnessing their own funeral. Whether or not this is truly the situation is up to the reader. Emily Dickinson is an author whose work often inspires analysis due to the multitude of contextual meanings that may be applied to her work. This quality is known as polysemy (Goodman & O’Halloran, 2006, p.70). The critical analysis of the poem through the inherent clues of the poem’s linguistics may find evidence to support several of t hese theories. This particular poem has sparked multiple analyses. Some readers believe that the poem is about a person’s descent into madness. Others think that it is about writer’s block. Still others claim that the poem is simply about death as the basic context might imply. The fact of the matter is that it does not matter who is right in the end. The myriad of possible meanings speaks to this poem’s high degree of creativity. In terms of linguistics, Dickinson utilizes heavy deviation. Deviation is defined as being when words, phrases, and grammatical structures draw attention themselves (Goodman & O’Halloran, 2006, p.70).This can be seen in the poem by the capitalization of words that are not normally capitalized such as â€Å"Funeral, Brain, Mourners, Sense, Service, Drum, etc†