Albert Alvarado
ToK Extended Essay
January 15, 2006
On The Shoulder Of Giants
Time and time again people have tried to rebel against tyrants either by force or by words. Few rebellions succeed so through out the year’s tyrants control and oppress the people of the their land. Total control in the hands of one person led people to ponder the way they lived there lives thus emerged three great ideologist born during different time periods but with similar ideas, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. Their ideas were the building blocks to many constitutions of government; they laid out the building blocks to the Declaration Of Independence by showing us the way on the shoulder of giants. These three ideologists spoke of government as a necessity that was formed from peoples need to be with others in order to provide a better life for the commonwealth.
To understand how a government is formed one must consider its origins. The origins of government begin with the union of man and woman. This union comes from mans desire to leave an image of himself behind thus being human nature to want to form a union in the first place. Once man and woman decide they are in a good situation they can decide to form a family. When many families come together, they start to require more needs so a community is formed in order to provide resources for the people of the community. When more communities start to emerge, they may begin to require other resources so they begin to communicate with other close by communities and when they are able to sustain themselves, the state emerges. With the state comes a king, where one person chosen by god is the ruler, or the statesman, “where the citizens rule and are rules in turn.” As was put by Aristotle. So this shows that the development of state or government comes from human nature. But in developing a government, its citizens must give up their absolute liberty in order to allow a powerful government to enforce the laws on society that allow them to live in harmony.
