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Example research essay topic: Karl Marx Pursue Happiness - 2,122 words

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In the Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers wrote about basic rights among men. The pursuit of happiness is one of these rights. This fundamental human right is up for interpretation, and it is an idea, like many others, that came as a result of the ideas of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. On the other hand, the ideas of Karl Marx came about after the Declaration of Independence was written. Each philosopher would have had his own idea about what the pursuit of happiness would have been. The writings of Hobbes and Locke influenced the Declaration of Independence along with the United States Constitution, which, intern, influenced Marx.

Through this, the pursuit of happiness is a topic that would have been thought about by Hobbes, Locke, and Marx. Thomas Hobbes was a philosopher who greatly influenced the ideas in the Declaration of Independence. Hobbes saw the pursuit of happiness as a topic worth debating. On one side of the idea of happiness, Hobbes wrote there is no greater signe of the equal distribution of any thing, than that every man is contented with his share (Hobbes 43). What this means is, to Hobbes, every man should already be happy with what they have, or at least every man should be content with what possessions they have accumulated. Because there are few fundamental differences in the individual man, no man should be unhappy in the first place.

However, what this also means is that, by nature, man is born with the right of happiness. So through these ideals, man has the right to happiness, although man need not necessarily pursue this happiness. Hobbes also philosophizes that man should have hope, due to near equality of ability, to attain what he wants to be happy. This in itself should bring happiness (Hobbes 43).

In Hobbes philosophy, he also theorized on the topic of war and peace. Because Hobbes believed in mans eternal struggle for survival, he concluded that, in nature, man was constantly at war against all other men. Peace, according to Hobbes, was only obtained through leaders, organization, and social contract. Through this idea, Hobbes theorized that men clump together for two reasons: power and happiness. Therefore, through organization comes a common peace for man, and through this peace, men gains power and therefore happiness. According to Hobbes the life of man, solitary poore, nasty, brutish, and short (Hobbes 44).

The general idea for Hobbes, then, was that the pursuit of happiness is achieved for mankind through organization and through contentment of position. John Locke was also a great influence on the Declaration of Independence, despite the fact that his ideas on the pursuit of happiness differed from those of Hobbes. Happiness, according to Locke, is the right to property. This idea was one of Locke's inalienable rights and greatly influenced our forefathers.

Locke felt that no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions (Locke 50). In this case, possessions are property, and property is happiness, so, therefore, every one has a right to this happiness without harm. Along with this ideal, Locke said that every man has a right to protect his property (Locke 50). Another idea that Locke had relevant to the pursuit of happiness was his idea of labor. To Locke, labor is the fundamental possession of man. Therefore, because a mans labor was his own, anything that transpired from that labor also belonged to that man.

This is how happiness is attained, according to Locke. Therefore, the pursuit of happiness is labor, which every man would have a right to. A final point of Locke regarding the right of happiness involves the ideals behind government. According to Locke, Political power [is] a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property (Locke 49). In this, all laws and governments serve a main purpose to protect the property, and therefore the happiness, of the citizens that it serves.

What the ideals of Locke draw up is a situation where man works for a right to his property, which translates into happiness. With this, government is an organized system for protecting this happiness. It all comes down to Man having the right to pursue happiness, with the pursuit being the labor and the happiness being the possessions achieved through the labor. Through Hobbes and Locke, the ideal of the inalienable right pursuit of happiness was born. Both these men would have seen the term happiness to mean quite a different thing, but both had their share of influence on the concept. In comparison with this, Karl Marx was a philosopher after the Declaration of Independence.

In his communist viewpoints, happiness would mean a whole different thing and bring about a different level of thinking. Much of Marx's thought is based on the downfall of a real democratic state. It is doubtful that Marx would have argued with democracy in pure form, but the government that existed was a far cry from pure. Marx believed that the bourgeois that controlled government and property in such a state was unjust and unfair. Property itself, as Marx argued, was only realized by the small percentage of people that made up the bourgeois. Therefore, to Marx, under the conditions of his time, happiness could never truly by obtained by the common workingman.

What Marx wanted to do, then, was to rid the idea of private property and create a communist state where every man was of equal importance in capital of a society. Therefore, his ideals included that capital is not a personal [power], it is a social power (Marx 225). This also calls for equal liability for all to labor (Marx 230). This creates another goal to destroy class distinctions. According to Marx, Political power [as it presently was], properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another (Marx 230). In this thought, he wishes to end all political power that the bourgeois had over the working class.

The relevance these goals have to the pursuit of happiness is important. Marx would argue that happiness is not attainable as a right to pursue for the working class, and that only the bourgeois could know happiness. Therefore, only through Marx's ideals could happiness be attained for the working class. To Marx, then, it would seem that happiness, as a right of pursuit, was unobtainable under current conditions.

So, only through a communist state could happiness itself be realized. Another important idea of Marxism is that of the individual working for the good of the state. In this opinion, happiness brings on a new meaning. According to this ideal, happiness might be achieved by bettering the state with work, and, therefore, bettering oneself. The pursuit, then, would again be in the labor, which every man would not only have a right to, but also a responsibility for. Therefore, Marx might see the pursuit of happiness as a fundamental right that men are born with in a communist state, but one that is unobtainable by the working class in a democracy.

Also, the definition of happiness, according to Marx, would be a social state in which all men are truly treated equal, and where no man oppresses another through restraints such as corrupt government. Through these ideas, Marx was influenced by the Declaration of Independence. This is because, in the Declaration of Independence, though Jefferson wrote of men created equal, in the United States still those in power were the bourgeois. Therefore, in the United States, only the bourgeois were truly created equal. Indentured servants, slaves, and other men of working class were forgotten, and lost on their rights. Through these hypocrisies Marx saw fault.

Therefore, he was influenced by the Declaration of Independence because he wished to change the realities it enforced. The pursuit of happiness is a fundamental right expressed by many influential philosophers, including our forefathers in the Declaration of Independence. Locke, Hobbes, and Marx all would have a definition of happiness itself, and what it would mean to pursue such a thing. Together, through their respective works, these influential men piece together different viewpoints on societal ideals and downfalls that are important to understand to better ourselves and our society. For example, in combining the ideals of Marx and Locke, we may better see that our rights to happiness can be of property, yet, we must keep in mind that all other citizens should share in those rights if they also labor. Locke forgot about the surfs and the slaves, but Marx reminds us that all should share in such a right.

Locke and Hobbes writings influenced the Declaration of Independence. Marx, on the other hand was influenced by the downfalls of bourgeois ideals, such as those presented in the Declaration of Independence. The philosophies of these writers were quite different. What all of these writers had in common, however, was a feeling of bettering society through government. A final point of Locke regarding the right of happiness involves the ideals behind government. According to Locke, Political power [is] a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property (Locke 49).

In this, all laws and governments serve a main purpose to protect the property, and therefore the happiness, of the citizens that it serves. What the ideals of Locke draw up is a situation where man works for a right to his property, which translates into happiness. With this, government is an organized system for protecting this happiness. It all comes down to Man having the right to pursue happiness, with the pursuit being the labor and the happiness being the possessions achieved through the labor. Through Hobbes and Locke, the ideal of the inalienable right pursuit of happiness was born. Both these men would have seen the term happiness to mean quite a different thing, but both had their share of influence on the concept.

In comparison with this, Karl Marx was a philosopher after the Declaration of Independence. In his communist viewpoints, happiness would mean a whole different thing and bring about a different level of thinking. Much of Marx's thought is based on the downfall of a real democratic state. It is doubtful that Marx would have argued with democracy in pure form, but the government that existed was a far cry from pure. Marx believed that the bourgeois that controlled government and property in such a state was unjust and unfair.

Property itself, as Marx argued, was only realized by the small percentage of people that made up the bourgeois. Therefore, to Marx, under the conditions of his time, happiness could never truly by obtained by the common workingman. What Marx wanted to do, then, was to rid the idea of private property and create a communist state where every man was of equal importance in capital of a society. Therefore, his ideals included that capital is not a personal [power], it is a social power (Marx 225). This also calls for equal liability for all to labor (Marx 230). This creates another goal to destroy class distinctions.

According to Marx, Political power [as it presently was], properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another (Marx 230). In this thought, he wishes to end all political power that the bourgeois had over the working class. The relevance these goals have to the pursuit of happiness is important. Marx would argue that happiness is not attainable as a right to pursue for the working class, and that only the bourgeois could know happiness. Therefore, only through Marx's ideals could happiness be attained for the working class. To Marx, then, it would seem that happiness, as a right of pursuit, was unobtainable under current conditions.

So, only through a communist state could happiness itself be realized. Another important idea of Marxism is that of the individual working for the good of the state. In this opinion, happiness brings on a new meaning. According to this ideal, happiness might be achieved by bettering the state with work, and, therefore, bettering oneself. The pursuit, then, would again be in the labor, which every man would not only have a right to, but also a responsibility for. Therefore, Marx might see the pursuit of happiness as a fundamental right that men are born with in a communist state, but one that is unobtainable by the working class in a democracy.

Also, the definition of happiness, according to Marx, would be a social state in which all men are truly treated equal, and where no man oppresses another through restraints such as corrupt government 316


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Research essay sample on Karl Marx Pursue Happiness

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