Honor Among Thieves

Locke certainly brings up some interesting ideas. In Chapter 3, he introduces the idea of justice and honoring contracts. He claims that these are some of the few moral principles that everyone agrees with, even thieves. If the ideas of justice and honor are responsible for holding society together, the same holds true for thieves and gangs, even though their beliefs can be a little misguided. Their idea of justice is revenge, perhaps against another gang for the death of one of their members. Their idea of honor is that everyone gets their share of the spoils. The fact that honor and justice are so instrumental in keeping even gangs together shows that it is vital to all society. This kind of reminds me of Descartes a little because their interpretations of the same principles are so radically different, but yet they are equally valid interpretations. One interpretation just happens to be wildly misguided.

Edit: Commented on Rachael Gregson's and Drew Hedden's posts

Comments

Christian said…
This is definitely a good point, and I enjoyed your summary. I feel like a strong argument is made for justice in Locke's writing on the subject. I feel like there are tons of ways to make this argument, and Locke sums it up well. Good post.