Rousseau vs Locke

Submitted by Ralph C Whaley MD (United States), Nov 8, 2005 at 11:10

The battle in the west including the war in France is between the ideas of Rousseau and John Locke or more fundamentally between Reason and Faith, Reality and Mysticism. The enormous achievement of Western Culture in science, economics, medicine and politics is the direct consequence of the re-introduction of the ideas of Aristotle by Thomas Aquinas which led to the Renaissance, The Enlightenment, The Age of Reason, The Industrial revolution and the birth of the first moral nation in history, The United States of America.

France fell under the influence of Jean Jacque Rousseau at the same time that America was being founded on the Ideas of Locke. Rousseau was a Mystic who believed that to be free meant to obey the law giver, who was ultimately God in Heaven who rules by his specially appointed men on earth. Who are they?
They are self proclaimed and anyone who disagrees is properly executed. Locke believed in the sovereignty of the individual who is to be left free, to guide his own life by his own mind for his own happiness on earth.

France is now under assault by Muslims who agree with Rousseau and disagree with Locke. Their opponents in the French Government and the Intellectuals in France, under the influence of Rousseau's ideas, are helpless to resist those more dedicated to the same ideas. Currently the Muslim revolutionaries are more consistent in their application of a common principle of killing those who do not submit to the Law Giver in Heaven who, in their belief, has designated Mohammad as his agent on earth.

The solution to this calamity requires understanding that humans living in society require freedom to use their minds to create the values that human life requires. Reason is man's only means of achieving that knowledge. Religion is in essence, Faith. Faith is anti-reason, anti-mind, and anti-human life. Mysticism is the fundamental enemy in this conflict. Reason is the solution.

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