Legitimate authority cannot rest on Adamic inheritance, only on a new foundation
Evidence
All these premises having, as I think, been clearly made out, it is impossible that the rulers now on earth should make any benefit, or derive any the least shadow of authority from that, which is held to be the fountain of all power, Adam’s private dominion and paternal jurisdiction; so that he that will not give just occasion to think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it, and so lay a foundation for perpetual disorder and mischief, tumult, sedition and rebellion, (things that the followers of that hypothesis so loudly cry out against) must of necessity find out another rise of government, another original of political power, and another way of designing and knowing the persons that have it, than what Sir Robert Filmer hath taught us. — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 5
Categorization
- DEFINE: Establishes that rejecting Adam’s dominion as the fountain of power forces Locke to locate another origin of government.
- XREF: connects to: Birthplace does not make anyone a natural subject of a government. — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 142; Establishment of legal succession requires an accepted rule rather than mere habit — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 661; An invented past cannot serve the present; only an honest one can be used. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 130 (+1 more)
Related
- Birthplace does not make anyone a natural subject of a government. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Establishment of legal succession requires an accepted rule rather than mere habit
#corroborates(0.85) — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 661 - An invented past cannot serve the present; only an honest one can be used.
#corroborates(0.78) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 130 - Caste cannot claim a eugenic origin because heredity laws were unknown to its founders
#corroborates(0.72) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 869