government theory

Chapter 29 On Slavery

twenty two.Man's natural freedom refers to not being restricted by any superior power in the world, not being under the will or laws of others, and only taking natural law as his yardstick.But the liberty of man in society means not to be governed by any laws but those established in the country by consent of the people; Freedom from any legal constraints.Therefore, freedom is not, as Sir Robert Filmer told us: "Everyone can do what he pleases, and live as he pleases, without being bound by any law." Aristotle's "Comment on Politics" p. 22) the liberty of people under the government, there should be long-term effective rules as the yardstick of life.And this rule is observed by all members of the society and formulated by the legislature established by the society.As natural liberty is freedom from restraint but the law of nature, so it is liberty to do my own will in all things for which rules do not prescribe, from the capricious, unpredictable, The domination of an arbitrary will.

twenty three.This freedom from arbitrary and absolute power is so necessary and so closely connected with a man's self-preservation that he cannot lose it unless he deprives himself of the means of self-defense and his own life. lost together.Since a man is incapable of creating his own life, he cannot, by contract or by agreement, place himself in slavery to anyone, or place himself under the arbitrary and absolute power of another to take his own life.No one has the right to give to others more power than he has.Those who cannot deprive their own lives cannot give the power to control their own lives to others.It is true that when a person loses his right to life by fault for doing an act worthy of death, he can postpone taking his life to whomever he loses it, provided that he has mastered him and is able to use him. He came to serve himself.It does him no harm.Because when he feels that the pain of slavery exceeds the value of life, he has the right to die against the will of his master.

twenty four.What has been said is the most complete state of slavery, which is only the continuation of the state of war between the legitimate conqueror and the conquered.If a contract is concluded between them, an agreement is reached, whereby one party has limited power and the other must obey, then during the validity period of this contract, war and slavery are declared to be terminated.The reason is as mentioned above, no one has the right to transfer to another person what he does not have, such as the right to control his own life, by agreement.Of course, I also admit that we have seen that among the Jews, and even among other nationalities, there are indeed things that betray themselves.But we should be clear that this is only for labor, not for slavery.For obvious reasons, the betrayed man is not under an arbitrary and absolute despotic power.At any time, the master does not have the right to kill him. Instead, at a specific time, he must be relieved of his service and returned to his freedom.The master of this kind of slave has no right to arbitrarily dispose of the slave's life, so he cannot be hurt at will.As long as he loses an eye or a tooth, he can be set free (from "Old Testament Exodus" Chapter 24).

(End of this chapter)