Furthermore, the very inclusion of “the pursuit of happiness” as one of only three unalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration suggests that the drafters must have meant something substantive when they included the phrase in the text. Yet, property and the pursuit of happiness were listed as distinct-not synonymous-rights in eighteenth-century writings. The most common understandings suggest either that the phrase is a direct substitution for John Locke’s conception of property or that the phrase is a rhetorical flourish that conveys no substantive meaning. Scholars have long struggled to define the meaning of the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |