Locke And Freud Essay, Research Paper

Many different people have their own beliefs of the understanding of human

nature. After reading Dr. Sigmund Freud’s letter to Professor Einstein, Why War?, the

interpretation of the aspects that make us human become relevant.

Freud distinguishes the relation between Right and Might, and he uses the word

“violence” instead of might. Right and violence have developed out of one another.

Conflicts beaten man are usually solved with violence, and it was the more dominant or

superior man which always came out on top of the existing conflict. This is true for a

matter of fact. For example, in a sword fight, the man with the bigger weapon and the

better skill to use it would obviously win the fight. The man who won the fight was

superior. Not only weapons, but intellect became a equivalent as well. The better mind

won the war. The absolute feeling of this domination was complete when the victor used

his strength to terminate his opponent, in other words, kill them. So then it was that

domination by whoever had the greater brute or violence, might, was supported by

intellect.

The way to end this war caused by violence would be by union. Superior strength

of an individual could be overruled by several individuals. Freud then said that “Thus we

see that right is the might of a community.” That is true, but now the violence no longer

rests in the hands of the individual, but in the hands of the entire community. This

community or union, must be stable and sure about pacifying the might of the nation. If

one individual tried to defeat another to create this unity to dissolve the might, and after

his defeat, then another would come along to prove his strength and superiority, and then

again nothing would be accomplished. Freud says that the community must be

permanently maintained and organized and everyone must be involved so noone would

become dominant. All members of this community must be equally strong. Freud also

notes that love and hate are both needed for survival, and as we all know, hate is directly

involved with violence.

John Locke, along with Freud is a pacifist. They both believe in perfect freedom,

equality and liberty to all of the people of the nation. Locke believes in reason as a way to

end war. Freud’s theory about creating a nonviolent, equal community has everything to

do with reason. Coming to a compromise saying that everyone is equal and that our

nation will get nowhere with war and hatred. But history does equal violence and

actually, as history progresses, we do in fact become more civilized. Locke’s belief of rule

of the majority would work significantly with Freud’s theory of uniting as a community.

But the individuals themselves must stop being so self centered.

The concept of human nature is learning to control the bad and work together to

make the perfect world. That will never happen. Without bad, you would have nothing to

compare the good to. There would be no such thing as emotions because everything

would be the same and we wouldn’t know any different. You wouldn’t laugh, you

wouldn’t cry, and we would just live in a monotone world without any feelings what so

ever. In my opinion there is no such thing as a perfect world and actually, would the

world really be perfect?