Adrian Buck > Recent Status Updates

"...and should he govern them as slaves, subjected to his absolute arbitrary Power, he has no such Right of Dominion over their children..." - the Commonwealth of Virginia decided otherwise in 1662 (during Locke's lifetime)

"The fundamental Law of Nature being that...give way to the pressing and preferable title of those who are danger to perish without it" - i.e. property rights should give way to biological needs: the rich should provide for the poor.

"And he that appeals to Heaven, must be sure he has Right on his side; and a Right too that is worth the Trouble and Cost of the Appeal, as he will answer at a Tribunal, that cannot be deceived, and will be sure to retribute to every one according to the mischiefs he hath created to his Fellow Subjects; that is, any part of Mankind." - for Locke, the divine right of kings is a blasphemous usurpation.

"[Conquest] often makes way for a new Frame of a Commonwealth, by destroying the former; but, without the Consent of the People, can never erect a new one." - 'people' presumably means the majority of the polity

"...those two qualities which are the real tests of a Forsyte - the power of never being able to give yourself up to anything soul and body, and the "sense of property.""

"...windows which had been altered to open outwards..." - in Hungary the windows still open inwards

xi - "Men are, in fact, quite unable to control their inventions; they at best develp adaptability to the new conditions those inventions create."

"As soon as compact enters, slavery ceases" - what would Locke make of arguments that suggest slavery is beneficial for slaves?

"...the reigns of good princes have always been dangerous to the liberties of their people." - cf Churchill "...democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

"For the End of Government being the good of the community..." - this is different to the end of government being the mutual defense of individual property, because a community is more than a collection of individuals."

"The executive power placed anywhere but in a person, that has also a share in the legislative is visibly subordinate and accountable to it" - not clear what Locke thinks the link between legislative and executive power should be.

"And thus the Community may be said in this respect to be always the supreme power, but not as considered under any form of government, because this Power of the People can never take place till the government be dissolved" - without a definition of community, legitimate expressions of people power remain undefined.

"But still [Taxation] must be with his own consent, i.e. the consent of the Majority, giving it either by themselves, or their Representatives chosen by them." - Locke opens the door for confiscatory taxation. Nor does he distinquish between property acquired in a state of Nature, and that acquired in a state of Government. The bulk of property we enjoy is only possible in a state of government.

"Secondly, The legislative, or supream Authority, cannot assume to itself a Power to Rule by extemporary Arbitrary Decrees, but is bound to dispense Justice, and decide the Rights of the Subject by promulgated laws, and known Authoris'd Judges." - this is the bit about democracy Orbán doesn't get.

"Hence it comes to pass, that we seldom find ANY NUMBER OF MEN live in any time TOGETHER in this State [of Nature]." - anarchy is possible in small groups.

"The fault of this country is the want of measure in political life. Flat acquiesence in illegality, followed by sanguinary reaction - that, senores, is not the way to a stable and prosperous future." - All unhappy countries are alike; each happy country is happy in its own way?

"The colonel's want of moral sense was of a profound and innocent character. It bordered upon stupidity, moral stupidity. Nothing that served his ends could appear to him really reprehensible" - I'm too hard on my students, they're not bad, just stupid.

"...this man was made incorruptible by his enormous vanity, that finest form of egoism which can take on the aspect of every virtue." - Conrad presents his character's vices as virtues and vice-versa, Greene was later to make a whole career from this.

""Ah, if one only knew how far you mean to go," said his wife, inwardly trembling, but in an almost playful tone.
"Any, distance, any length, of course," was the answer, in a matter of fact tone, which caused Mrs Gould to make another effort to repress a shudder."
- this much discussion would be better.

"There is a curse of futility upon our character: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, chivalry and materialism, high-sounding sentiments and a supine morality, violent efforts for an idea and a sullen acquiesence in every form of corruption." - not just Hispanic culture?

"...that every Man, that hath any possessions, or enjoyment, of any part of the Dominions of any government, doth thereby give his tacit consent, and is as far obliged to obedience to the laws of that government, as any one under it." - Locke doesn't allow for any conscientious objection.

"If a subject of England have a child, by an English woman in France, whose subject is he?" - these days he'd be a citizen of both, rather than stateless as Locke suggests.

"But though the Golden Age...had more virtue, and consequently better govenors, as well as less vicious subjects" - most of Locke's assumptions and arguments are Conservative in nature: we should have a Liberal constitution because we had one in the past.

"...and of balancing the power of government, by placing several parts of it in different hands" - division of powers, 1690.

"[The records] that we have, of the polities in the world, excepting that of the Jews, where God himself immediately interpos'd..." - just to remind myself that Locke is a biblical literalist.

"Government is every where antecedent to Records" - whereas I agree with the point Locke is making, - that the lack of records of the State of Nature does not imply that the 'State of Nature' never existed - I think Records are in some sense the essence of Government. Records are required to rule at any scale beyond the village, and a rule limited to a individual village can hardly be called Government.

"Only let the material interests get a firm footing, and they are bound to impose the conditions on which alone they can continue to exist. That's how your money-making is justified here in the face of lawlessness and disorder. It's justified because the security it demands much be shared with an oppressed people."

I'm not convinced I understand iconicity, is being presented more complicatedly than need be?

"...reference itself is hierarchic in structure; more complex forms of reference are built up from simpler forms"

"[C.S.]Pierce...rephrased the problem of mind in terms of communication, ...arguing that all forms of thought (ideas) are essentially communication (transmission of signs)... If so, it might be possible to investigate the logic of thought processes by studying the sign production and interpretation processes in more overt communication" - i.e. linquistics provides the raw evidence for cognitive psychology.