Possessive Individual And Society——C.B.Macpherson’s Interpretation Of English Political Thought In17th Century

C. B. Macpherson is a political philosopher who have creatively developed the Marxism in20th century. By interpreting the political thought in17th century, he advanced the thesis of possessive individualism.(1)What makes a man human is freedom from dependence on the wills of others.(2) Freedom from dependence on others means freedom from any relations with others except those relations which the individual enters voluntarily with a view to his own interest.(3)The individual is essentially the proprietor of his own person and capacities, for which he owes nothing to society.(4) Although the individual cannot alienate the whole of his property in his own person, he may alienate his capacity to labour.(5) Human society consists of a series of market relations.(6) Since freedom from the wills of others is what makes a man human, each individual’s freedom can rightfully be limited only by such obligations and rules as are necessary to secure the same freedom for others.(7) Political society is a human contrivance for the protection of the individual’s property in his person and goods, and (therefore) for the maintenance of orderly relations of exchange between individuals regarded as proprietors of themselves.In Macpherson’s view, Hobbes’natural state is not a natural, but a civill state. What hided in Hobbes’theory is a possessive market society; The Levelers have to be regarded as radical democrats, but the "People" in their conception is not consist of the servants and alms-takers; Harrington’s balance principle will overbalance, except in a market relation; Locke justified the natural rights through law of nature, but he remove the limits to infinite appropriation of natural law at the end.