Liberty Lounge #2: Locke, Natural Rights, and The Political Theory of the American Founding

In this second episode of the Liberty Lounge, we continue to explore the philosophical and political theories of the American founding fathers as we work our way through Thomas G. West's book The Political Theory of the American Founding. Jordan uses West's book as a jumping off point to explore John Locke's theory of natural rights, with the aim of answering the following questions:

-What is the difference between classical liberalism and modern liberalism?
-Is there a conflict between equality and liberty?
-Is inequality necessary? If so, what do we mean when we pursue equality?
-How do governments emerge from a "state of nature"?
-How do rights emerge from a "state of nature"?
-What is a "right"?
-Are natural rights universal? Are they objective facts?
-Who was right--Rousseau, Hobbes, or Locke? And why?
-What makes the American political system and the U.S. Constitution special?
-How do property rights emerge from a "state of nature"?
-Why do we need property rights to be free?
-Is taxation moral?
-Do men truly wish to be free?

The Liberty Lounge is a segment of The Western Canon podcast dedicated to reviewing great books that focus on the principles of liberty and freedom. In the first two (2) episodes, we look closely at the brilliant enlightenment ideas--such as natural rights, ordered liberty, limited government, equality, and virtue--that typified the founders' thought and went into the drafting of documents like The Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Federalist Papers.

[laurataylor]

Bravo! I look forward to your review on Anarchy. Libertarianism could rightly be called minarchy. I think I spent about 2 months identifying with libertarian principals before I further expanded my research and moved right on to anarchist principals about 7 years ago.

I get exasperated at how the term anarchy has been re-defined to mean 'chaos', to the average person. (That is not by mistake.) I hope you'll cover its' real etymology: Anarchy comes from the Greek prefix an-(av-): "without; the absence of" and the Greek noun archon: "master; ruler". Anarchy does NOT mean "without rules." It literally means "without rulers; without masters.

Loving your videos!

[MomentswithDavid]

Wow, who are you? This was one of the best talks on philosophy and rights I have heard in a while. Subscribed