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Locke - State of Nature

John Locke wrote the "Second Treatise on Government" in 1689 to justify the Glorious Revolution in England and the limits it placed on royal power. Locke believed humans were born equally free in a state of nature, with natural rights to life, liberty and property. For society to form and protect these rights, individuals entered a social contract and consented to government rule. However, if a government failed to protect peoples' natural rights, they had a right to revolution to replace it with one that did. Locke's ideas on natural rights and consent of the governed influenced the American Revolution and founding documents like the Declaration of Independence.

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161 views35 pages

Locke - State of Nature

John Locke wrote the "Second Treatise on Government" in 1689 to justify the Glorious Revolution in England and the limits it placed on royal power. Locke believed humans were born equally free in a state of nature, with natural rights to life, liberty and property. For society to form and protect these rights, individuals entered a social contract and consented to government rule. However, if a government failed to protect peoples' natural rights, they had a right to revolution to replace it with one that did. Locke's ideas on natural rights and consent of the governed influenced the American Revolution and founding documents like the Declaration of Independence.

Uploaded by

Abdullah Saeed
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© © All Rights Reserved
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John Locke

Second Treatise
on Government
Locke’s Second Treatise
I. Biographical/Historical Background
II. State of Nature One
III. Freedom, Liberty, and License
IV. Property and Labor
I. Historical Background
 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
I. Historical Background
 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)
I. Historical Background
 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
 In exchange for throne, William
& Mary agreed to a more
limited, constitutional
monarchy
 Signed “Toleration Act” which
allowed for religious toleration
for most faiths (except
Catholicism and Unitarianism)
I. Historical Background
 Locke lives out his days on government
pension

… without further ado, Locke’s Second Treatise


II.State of Nature 1
 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 1
 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.”
 What does that mean?
II.State of Nature 1
 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
 I can do “X” without asking someone else’s approval
to do “X”
 Bear in mind, he is saying that this freedom is natural;
that we naturally are free from any social constraints
or relations
 Note: to this point in human history, very few people
could be said to enjoy freedom in this sense
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 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).
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 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
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 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
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 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?
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 Drug addict example
 Do I want to be the kind of person who smokes crack?
 Do I want to smoke crack now? Or now? Or..
 Only the first person is truly free, and that person is
obeying a rule or law
 Freer in that life is more fully an expression of your own will
 When following the laws of nature, you are following
the dictates of your own reason and nothing else
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 In other words, freedom does not mean
war… it means peace!
 Think of interpersonal interaction … do we
need a sovereign to tell us what is right?
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 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
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 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.”
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 For Hobbes, freedom and equality were in
large measure responsible for the state of
nature being a war of all against all
 For Locke, freedom and equality lead to a
radically different situation
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
“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).
II.Freedom, Liberty, License
 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????
John Locke
“Two Treatises on Civil Government”
(1689)

H-SS 11.1.1- Describe the Enlightenment and the rise of democratic


ideas as the context in which the nation was founded
23
 John Locke wrote Treatises on Civil
Government.
 This writing reflects the ideology of the
Glorious Revolution. Forces of Parliament
had won and they selected William & Mary as
their new monarchs.
 The Glorious Revolution limited the power of
the Royal Family and forced them to live by
the Magna Carta and the (English) Bill of
Rights.

24
Nature

He believed mankind was


 Good
 Moral
 Honest
 Reasonable

25
Humans in Nature
 Humans born with natural rights to:
 Life
 Liberty
 Property - Dec. of Independence changed to the
“Pursuit of Happiness”…… Property = Happiness

 Rights came from God or nature not the gov’t, so


gov’t can not take them away, which makes
them inalienable

26
Social Contract
 Gov’t gets its authority to rule from
the people.
 Gov’t exists to protect your natural
rights (life, liberty, and property).
 If it fails the people have a Right to
Revolution

27
idea that if our government fails to
protect our rights we have the right
to get rid of it or change it to make it
better

 Right to Revolution-people have the right or


duty to rebel if gov’t fails to protect their rights
--This is the driving force of our Political system--
 It can happen two ways:

28
29
Peaceful Change- government changes as citizens
recognize problem(s) and correct them w/o changing
gov’t. Citizens vote to change the gov’t.
30
 When the system fails to react to problems or
when gov’t becomes unjust citizens will riot or
start open rebellions.
 During Revolutionary War period people tried
to peacefully change system when it failed
they started the war

31
Declaration of Independence
 Written by Thomas Jefferson. It is based on
John Locke’s philosophies as written in “Two
Treatises on Civil Government”
 It described unalienable natural rights, social
contract, and the right to revolution
 It was an expression of what the colonists
believed were their rights as English subjects

32
Declaration of Independence
 Unalienable natural rights-cannot be
taken away
 Social contract-gov’t gets authority to
rule from the people
 Right to revolution-if gov’t fails to
protect natural rights then the people
have the right to change or replace
the gov’t

33
Written by
Thomas Jefferson
based on ideas
Of John Locke

Declaration of Independence 34
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while
evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right,
it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history
of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

 Read the Declaration of Independence-the areas marked in red reflect John Locke’s
ideas and the beliefs about government that all British subject held at the time of our
revolution.

35

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