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    ジョンロック ニオケル ジアイ ノ ケンリ ソノ セイシツ ト ヤクワリ ニツイテ ノ ケントウ

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    This paper considers Locke’s concept of a right to charity which figures inhis system of political theory. There are three questions to be considered. First,what does Locke mean by a ‘right to charity’? Second, what roles does it playin his political theory? Third, how is the right to charity, or a correlative duty ofcharity, to be realized in political society? In dealing with the third question, Iwill not only clarify Locke’s own position but also try to unfold its implicationsby reconstructing his arguments.The right to charity, as Locke sees it, is a natural right. The natural right is tobe preserved in political society. A government is expected to preserve eachperson’s natural rights; or more precisely, his ‘property’ in the broad sense, i.e.his life, liberty, and estate. The right to charity is a means to preserve each person’slife and liberty. However, we tend to lose sight of this fact, since we oftenconfine our attention to the last item of property, i.e. each one’s estate or hisexternal goods.This paper tries to make it clear that the right to charity enables a poor personto request rich people to transfer some of their goods. This right serves topreserve his life, while it functions to secure his voluntary consent and the libertyof his choice. Life and the liberty of choice are essential to Locke’s propertytheory. Locke did not seem to assign a government the task of realizing thepoor person’s right to charity. However, since the end of political society is topreserve each person’s ‘property’ which includes his life and liberty, it followsthat a government can legitimately transfer goods from rich people to poor peopleinsofar as it is required by that end
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