Wilhelm von Humboldt

Name: The Sphere and Duties of Government — On the Solicitude of the State for the Welfare of Minors, Lunatics, and Idiots.
Author: Wilhelm von Humboldt

The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

Summary

“The Sphere and Duties of Government — On the Solicitude of the State for the Welfare of Minors, Lunatics, and Idiots.”, published in 1854, is a work by Wilhelm von Humboldt. It explores elements such as minors, maturity and duty.

Quotes from The Sphere and Duties of Government… (Wilhelm von Humboldt)

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ With the age of maturity the power of the parents must necessarily cease altogether. The duty of the parents, then, may be thus generally defined,—to put their children in a condition (partly by personal care for their physical and moral well-being, and partly by providing them with the necessary means) to choose a plan of life for themselves, while they are only restricted in that choice by the circumstances of their individual position; the duty of the children, on the other hand, consists in doing all that is necessary for the sufficient performance of that duty on the part of the parents. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ The general object of legislation is to determine all that concerns the actions of the citizen and their necessary consequences. The first point of view, therefore, arises from the nature of those actions themselves, and of such of their consequences as flow solely from the principles of right. The second point of view is the special end of the State, the limits to which it designs to restrict, or the circuit to which it would extend, its agency. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ ON THE SOLICITUDE OF THE STATE FOR THE WELFARE OF MINORS, LUNATICS, AND IDIOTS.
All the principles I have hitherto endeavoured to establish in this essay, presuppose men to be in the full exercise of their ripened powers of understanding. For they are all grounded on the conviction, that the man who thinks and acts for himself should never be robbed of the power of voluntarily deciding on all that concerns himself, according to the results of his deliberations. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ It is only necessary to observe, with regard to these, that as the return to reason is yet possible, the temporary exercise of their rights is all that should be taken from them, and not those rights themselves. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ It would, therefore, appear to be neither just nor advisable to require parents to be continually rendering account of their conduct towards their children; they must be trusted not to neglect the discharge of a duty which lies so near to their hearts; and only in cases where actual neglect of this responsibility has occurred, or where it may be immediately apprehended, has the State any right to intermeddle with these domestic relations. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ The children, therefore, retain all their original rights as regards their life, their health, their fortune (if they already possess any) , and should not be limited even in their freedom, except in so far as the parents may think necessary, partly for their own development, and partly to preserve the newly-arisen domestic relations, while such limitations should not extend beyond the time required for their training. Children must never be compelled to actions which extend in their immediate consequences beyond this period of development, or even over the whole life. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ All that is here said of minors applies likewise to those who are deprived of reason, with the difference only which is suggested by the nature of the thing itself. No one more- over should be regarded in such a condition until he has been formally declared to be so, after an inquiry into the circumstances by medical men, and under the supervision of the magistrate; and the evil itself must always be considered as temporary, and the return of reason possible. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ Hence, then, they cannot be applied to persons such as lunatics and idiots, who are almost wholly deprived of reason, or to those in whom it has not reached that maturity which depends on the very growth and maturity of the body. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ In addition to these arrangements in the case of minors, the State should not rest satisfied with protecting them, like other citizens, from outward encroachment, but must advance a step further in this respect. It has been before laid down, that every man may dispose of his fortune or determine on his actions, according as the case may be, of his own free-will. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government… (1854)

“ It is advisable that certain times should be appointed for the expiration of minority as regards the validity of different actions, and that the freedom of the minors be gradually enlarged while the supervision of their affairs is proportionately diminished. ”

Wilhelm von Humboldt

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Quotes from The Sphere and Duties of Government… (Wilhelm von Humboldt)

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