Locke's Second Treatise Of Government

First and foremost, it is important to discuss Locke’s central theme of life, liberty, and the pursuit of property and how it influenced the Declaration of Independence. The document starts out discussing the state of nature and the natural law. In the hypothetical state of nature, all humans are created equal, are rational beings, and have the freedom to act however they want without the interference of others. The Declaration of Independence starts out by mentioning this natural state. The state of war is enacted with the introduction of private property. Originally, everything found on the earth belongs to everyone. The natural law was anyone had the freedom to use the earth in any way they may need. However, the natural law also states that every being has a right to their body, and its actions. Their actions would be described as the labor they put into the land owned by everyone, as a result the land produced and made better

Locke’s thought on having a king, laws, and a civil society under a social contract was so all men can enjoy and protect their rights. Where all men obtain the right to life, all humans have the right to live and life shouldn't be taken away from another human being. The right to liberty, protecting an individual's freedom and unreasonable detention. The right to property, a citizen in which Locke thought a human's labour was his own, anything created or made should remain that individuals as well and the right to rebel against unjust rulers and laws.

Besides the right to self-preservation, Locke also believed that all individuals had a natural right to property, “the labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are property his,” (pg. 128, 27). This natural right carried with it two preconditions of natural law. First, since God gave the earth to all individuals, people must be sure to leave enough property for others to have, the second

John Locke defends the right to private property in Second Treatise of Government by transforming Biblical principles into Capitalist principles. Locke explores nine steps that stem from the Book of Genesis to explain “in a positive way how men could come to own various particular parts of something that God gave to mankind in common” (Locke 11). Locke believes that the unnatural inequality is perfectly acceptable. because he notes that some people work harder than others so they deserve more. The only way to ensure his argument is to guarantee that private property is secured by divinity, otherwise men can give and take away property freely, which includes the sovereign.

“Though the earth, and all inferior creatures be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property”. “From all which it is evident, that though the things of Nature are given in common, man (by being master of himself, and proprietor of his own person, and the actions or labour of it) has still in himself the great foundation of property;...” (Locke, 1978

In Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, he defines his view of private property. He states that the earth belongs to all men in common,

Locke believes that there are limitations on that property. Locke believes that God has given us all things richly, and that man may use those things as long as he takes what he needs. Men can have property as long as they obtained it rightfully, and as long as they use discretion. If those limitations were overlooked when the person was getting the property the property was not obtained rightfully.

Locke begins his explanation of private property by establishing how individuals come to possess property separate from the common resources of mankind. The defining feature of a piece of private property is labor, as the individual who performs the “labour that removes [the good] out of that common state nature left it in” makes the property his own (V. 30). According to Locke, the common resources of nature are open to all mankind, but a good becomes an individual’s own when a person performs some sort of labor on it. This stems from his idea that industry is an extension of self-ownership – people have natural rights of their own being, and extending these personal rights through work is how people come to own other things. Labor is what establishes ownership of a good, and as long as the amount of property taken is within a reasonable and modest amount, people are free to take what resources they must from the Earth. Although Locke argues in favor of the possession of private property, he emphasizes the point that it is “dishonest” for a man “to hoard up more than he could make use of” (V. 46). When people take property in excess, perishable

	One of Locke’s central themes is the distribution of property. In a state of natural abundance "all the fruits it naturally produces, and beasts it feeds, belong to mankind in common" (page 18). In this situation the only thing man naturally owns is "his own person. This no body has any right to but himself" (page 18). Therefore, man is in a way equal, however it is an imperfect equality. "Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property" (page 18). Therefore, everything belongs to mankind in general, until a man decides to take it upon himself to acquire something from its pure state in nature, and since he has to work to achieve this, the fruits of the labor are his.

Having established his state of nature, Locke begins his description of the formation and transition to society, and appropriately starts with a discussion of property. “God, who hath given the World to Men in common, hath also given them reason to make use of it to the best advantage of Life, and convenience.” (Locke, Second Treatise, V.26). Here, Locke does little more than apply natural law (self preservation) to what he sees around him (land), but in doing so, makes a groundbreaking shift. He reveals that, following from natural law, men have a right to use what they have around them to further their own preservation and lives. In addition, man has an inherent, and obvious, possession of himself and all that comes with it, including, and most importantly, labor. “The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his Hands, we may say, are properly his.” (Locke, Second Treatise,

Next, under Locke’s state of nature, he also places a heavy emphasis on extensive rights, including property rights. He believed that self-determination implied private property rights and that human life without property is not free. In refutation to this

Locke also discusses the limitations on private property. One must leave enough for others and take only as much as one can use (Locke, §33). He then applies this to acquiring land. Locke writes,

Therefore, even though the rights are the individuals they do not have the right to give them away. In the same respect, no other man or governing body has the ability to take these rights from an individual. (Wives and servants cannot have their rights taken away from them by their husbands or masters because they are human individual endowed with unalienable rights.) The question is then: what is property? Property according to Locke can range from pieces of land to products, but even if a person has none of these “every man has a property in his own person” (Locke). Labor put in is the qualifying factor that turns something from common property to private property. The labor put forth in an individuals being can be seen simply through the act of breathing being at birth to the endeavors of an individual to better his character. When actual land is concerned, the transition to private property is similar to the owning of the individual due to labor applied. Common land, shared by all, becomes the property of an individual by the consent of all those within the common and as long as the individual leaves enough for others and

Locke thinks the same that in such cases, the inhabitant do value the land until there is no room enough for them in that space – problems with this sentence. Only in this case, people start, all in consent, distinguishing the property.

Locke critisized this unequal distribution of possesions and ownership. He briefly summarizes this view by saying that: