An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1793. Excerpt: ... DEGREESOOKIV. jucge of this injustice? The question answers itself: the private judgment of the individual. Were it not so, the appeal would be nugatory, for we have no infallible judge to whom to refer our controversies. He is obliged to consult his own private judgment in this case, for the fame reason that obliges him to consult it in every other article of his conduct. judge of his own re siitance. Objection. "But is not this position necessarily subversive of all govern ment? Can there be a power to rule, where no man is bound to obey; or at least where every man is to consult his own understanding first, and then to yield his concurrence no farther than he shall conceive the regulation to be just? The very idea of government is that of an authority superseding private judgment how then can the exercise of private judgment be left entire? What degree of order is to be expected in a community, where every man is taught to indulge his own speculations, and even to resist the decision of the whole, whenever that decision is opposed to the dictates of his own fancy?" Answered The true answer to these questions lies in the observation with from the na., . tureofgo- which we began our .disquisition on government, that this vernment j boasted institution is nothing more than a scheme for enforcing i by brute violence the sense of one man or set of men upon another, necessary to be employed in certain cases of peculiar emergency. Supposing the question then to lie merely between the force of the community on one part, and the force with which any individual member should think it incumbent upon BOOK IV. 'r CHAP. I. him to resist their decisions on the other, it is sufficiently evident -- -- that a certain kind of authority and supremacy would be the result. But this is not the tr...