John Locke Second Treatise on Government. After years of dynastic war, England settled down with the...

John Locke

Second Treatise on Government

After years of dynastic war, England settled down with the Tudors and Stuarts. Well, with a lot of

“persuasion”

James I/IV tried to further establish the monarchy.

King James I/VI, On The Divine Right Of Kings, 1609 In the first original of kings, whereof some had

their beginning by conquest, and some by election of the people, their wills at that time served for law; Yet how soon kingdoms began to be settled in civility and policy, then did kings set down their minds by laws ... I conclude then this point touching the power of kings, with this axiom of divinity, that as to dispute what God may do, is blasphemy ... so is it sedition in subjects, to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power.

I. Historical Background

Remember the Puritans?

Left for America in 1620

In 1648 brought down the English monarchy!

Puritans outlawed Christmas

Puritans 1648-1668 Restoration Charles

II 1668-1688 James II 1688

Catholic Glorious Revolution Mary and William Anne

John Locke (1632 – 1704)

Enters Oxford in 1651 Studies philosophy, natural

history, medicine Becomes physician and

advisor to First Earl of Shaftesbury (big Whig politician)

Reign of Charles II, Charles dies in 1685

Glorious Revolution 1688

Line of succession issue (Catholic vs. Protestant)

Locke – through Shaftesbury – gets implicated in plot to assassinate James

Leaves England for Holland in 1683 Begins to write anonymous political pamphlets,

including the Two Treatises on Government (1689)

1688 “Glorious Revolution” in England

Replace the Catholic line from James with William and Mary (both Protestant)

Locke was an advisor to William while the two of them were in Holland together

Locke lives out his days on government pension

Locke’s Second Treatise on Government

I. Biographical/Historical Background

II. State of Nature

III. Freedom, Liberty, and License

IV. Property and Labor

II. State of Nature

Locke begins Chapter 2: “To understand political power right, and derive it

from its original, me must consider what state all men are naturally in…”

What we need to know, then, is the natural condition of mankind

II. State of Nature

Continuing with the quote from the opening of Chapter 2

“… and that is a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions, and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of Nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.”

II. State of Nature

Individuals living in state of nature Also seems we need to know 3 things:

1. Freedom

2. Law of nature

3. Property Rights

II. Freedom, Liberty, License

Two senses of freedom at work here Free from any social bonds, which means

Not dependent on the will of any other people

Note: to this point in human history, very few people could be said to enjoy freedom in this sense


But it’s not just any freedom, rather it’s freedom in accord with “the law of nature”

And that law is: “The state of Nature has a law of Nature to

govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” (chp.2, par 6).


We get 2 arguments to support this view:1. Religious

Each of us is created in God’s image We don’t have the right to destroy ourselves (as we

are God’s creatures), so we can’t have the right to destroy others like us

2. Secular “equal and independent” phrase Moral sympathy and rationality


Summary In state of nature we have freedom, which is life in

accordance with the law of nature Distinction between liberty and license For Locke, liberty is not the right to do everything,

but rather to do anything in accordance with the law of nature


Locke contra Hobbes Locke basically agrees with the structure of

Hobbes’ argument, but disagrees with his account There is a sense in which people in Hobbes state

of nature have freedom, but it is not a freedom we would want; it is self-defeating

But…How can I be free if I must obey a law?


So for Locke, state of nature is when we are all free, indeed it is a state of perfect freedom

Also a state of equality, since no one is forced to submit to any authority higher than the dictates of her own reason


Chapter 2“A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another: there being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank promiscuously born to all the same advantages of Nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection, unless the Lord and Master of them all, should by any manifest declaration of his will set one above another, and confer on him by an evident and clear appointment an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty.”


“Men living together according to reason, without a common superior on Earth, with authority to judge between them, is properly the state of Nature” (chp. 3, par. 19).


Which raises the question of why we would ever leave the state of nature? Why not anarchy?

Do we find any problems lurking in the state of nature????

Social Contract

When, by the miscarriages of those in authority, it (ruling) is forfeited; upon the forfeiture of their rulers, …, it reverts to the society, and the people have a right to act as supreme, and continue the legislative in themselves or place it in a new form, or new hands, as they think good.

Feudalism A political and economic system in which land and government are given to vassals in return for their military service.

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