John Locke's Second Treatise Of Government

Thesis Statement The surviving Nazi leadership’s defense team attempted to correlate their supporting argument with John Locke’s theory of government and property from “Second Treatise of Government;” however, in context, Lockean philosophy does not support the efforts of the Nazi leadership.

The Nuremburg Trials took place during World War Two, and the Nazi defense team, led by Dr. Stahmer, attempted to use supporting theory from had many ideas from Lockean philosophy. The defense team stated, “This maximum is precisely not a rule of expediency but it derives from the recognition of the fact that any defendant must needs consider himself unjustly treated under an ex post facto law.” Consequently, per the defense team, the Nazis, who harmed

Stahmer believed this utilization of judges was not just as these judges were not from a neutral party. Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” supports this premise as it stated, “It is unreasonable for men to be judges in their own cases, because self- love will bias men in favour of themselves and their friends. And on the other side, hostility, passion and revenge will lead them to punish others too severely.” Thus, per Dr. Stahmer, the courts should have neutral representatives and judges to serve.
Neutrality in courts is the only similarity between Locke and Stahmer. In reference to theories on government and property, these two men have conflicting stances. Dr. Stahmer believed no wrongdoing took place during World War Two, in particular with the Jews. Locke is a believed in equality of all people and in his book he stated, “It is also a state of equality, in which no-one has more power and authority than anyone else.” Jews in this time were treated like slaves because they could not make their own decisions and were forced to go to concentration camps. John Locke stated, “Freedom of men under government is having a standing rule to live by, common to everyone in the society in question, and made by the legislative power

John Locke’s ideas were used by Dr. Stahmer in the Nuremburg Trials. Locke’s ideas were also contradicted Dr. Stahmer, because Locke feels that everyone is equal and would never help with hurting the Jews. Dr, Stahmer took Locke’s ideas with him in the trials and changed them to how he feels about the Nazis. I feel that their theories are the total opposite, and that they would never agree on the rights of the Jews and the Natural Laws that they should