Will GfellerIntroduction Essay 1HUMN 221

Introduction Paragraph

The power and necessity of law has been a key theme of political and philosophical discourse for the last two and a half millennia. In the last five hundred years, great minds such as John Locke, Cesare Beccaria, and Jonathan Swift have all offered their viewpoints about how law should function, and how it influences western civilization. Twentieth century novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand believed that “civilization is the progress towards a society of privacy”, and that in their natural state, men were “ruled by the laws of [their] tribe”. Compared to the writings of Locke, Beccaria, and Swift on the nature of law, Rand’s beliefs about civilization can be challenged with regard to the origin, necessity, and duty of the law, as well as how it relates to civilization.