Early Classical

Question 1

Human Nature

Answer 1

• Egotistical individualism = advocates for a minimal state where self-interested (innate) individuals know their needs and are self-reliant.
• Negative liberty = the absence of restraint to achieve their potential.
• Has the capacity for reason and altruism (looks after each other whilst pursuing their own goals) = reflecting their core belief.

Question 2

Locke on HN

Answer 2

Rational, guided by the pursuit of self-interest, but are mindful of other concerns. Enables them not to have destructive tendencies.

Question 3

Wollstonecraft on HN

Answer 3

• Rationalism and individualism applies to both genders; intellectually not different and are equal.
• Women require a formal education to develop their rationality and potential, regardless of society’s views.
• Argued that the period’s treatment of women was a general affront to reason and to the individual liberty of half the adult population

Question 4

State

Answer 4

• Seen as a necessary evil to uphold law and order.
• Limited state co-exists with a minimal state.
• Social contract - representatives shouldn’t act as the masters of the people, reflecting its insistence upon natural rights and the separation of power.

Question 5

Locke on State

Answer 5

• Denied the principle of a monarch’s divine right to rule from God. Should be created by mankind and arises only through the govt’s consent.
• Limited govt to protect our freedom, by dispersal and separation of powers, as ‘where laws don’t exist a man has no freedom’ - no intervention in the economy.
• Contractual nature: state represents citizens’ needs (improving their situation) and requires their consent.

Question 6

Wollstonecraft on State

Answer 6

• Seeks to replace the monarchical state by a republic which enshrines women’s rights - as cannot vote, it violates liberalism’s principle of ‘government by consent’.
• Implies women are irrational, denying them individual freedom and formal equality.

Question 7

Economy

Answer 7

• No state intervention in the economy, supporting a minimal state and negative freedom.
• Pro-Laissez-faire capitalism, so wealth will ‘trickle down’ as capitalism has a limitless capacity to enrich society and its individuals.
• Advocated end of tariffs that ‘protect’ domestic producers and instead, promoted the spread of free trade between nation-states and their commercial classes.

Question 8

Locke on Economy

Answer 8

State policy should respect the ‘natural right’ to private property and arbitrate effectively between individuals competing for trade and resources.

Question 9

Wollstonecraft on Economy

Answer 9

Free trade market economy would be energised by the enterprise of liberated women, allowing them to educate themselves and achieve their potential by working.

Question 10

Society

Answer 10

• Believes it should be geared towards maximum individual freedom, as society is a sum of autonomous individuals.
• Individuals should be allowed to pursue education in order to unlock their innate powers of reason.
• Did not accepted total tolerance of all of society - needs some checks.

Question 11

Locke on Society

Answer 11

• Prior to the state’s existence, there was a natural society with natural laws and rights. It rejects the conservative view that no society could arise without formal authority (a state).
• Locke excluded from toleration atheists, whom he considered inherently immoral, and Roman Catholics, whose morals he judged harmful to society.

Question 12

Wollstonecraft on Society

Answer 12

• Oppressed women, stifling female individualism.
• ‘Infantilized’ women by conceiving women as weak, emotional creatures, complicit in their subjection and states they desire only marriage and motherhood.