John Locke: Account of Political Society
What would the American government be like today if it was not for the mind and political theory of John Locke? Some historians and philosophers believe that without John Locke our government would only be a shadow of what it is today. Arguably, one of his most important political and philosophical works was his Two Treatises of Government. There he argues that the function of the state is to protect the natural rights of its citizens, primarily to protect the right to property. John Locke, in many eyes, can be viewed as one of the father’s of Democracy. He embraced many of ideas in his theories on the state of nature and the rise of political society today. In Locke’s political society,
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This in essence means that all members of the society should be equal under the law of justice, and that no man is better than another, since all men are created equal, and all are equal before the laws of nature. “Everyone as he is bound to preserve himself, and not quit his station willfully; so by the like reason when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not unless it be to do justice on an offender, take any, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb or goods of another,” (Locke pg 117, 6). That means that no individual has the right to take away the rights of another. As a result, if a person commits a crime, the people have a right to punish him. For example, if one man kills another man's sheep, then the people have the right to kill one of his sheep without committing a crime. 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
	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.
“All men are naturally born in a state of perfect freedom, equal and independence to act how they want to. The state of nature has a law that governs it. This law of nature requires that no one should harm another in his natural rights life, liberty,and property.” John Locke said that all people are born with rights and that we should work together to keep our rights.
John Locke’s main idea was that the government should only be there to protect and provide for the people. He thought that society would be better if the government wasn’t so persistent in the lives of citizens. He also believed that people should deserve natural rights. It was his belief that people were born with these rights and that these rights should never be violated by anyone, including the government. He stated “[men are in] 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…” (Doc. A). In other words, this quote shows that Locke believes that humans have natural rights and that people should be free to use them however they please. Therefore, he believed that no one, especially the government, should have power over peoples’ natural
He seems to describe the right to ownership as something that can be earned by making improvements or purposing using hard work. Locke also places stipulations upon ownership such as not taking more than one needs or wasting. One of those examples were homestead. Locke thought by improving the quality of land, over time, the land became the property of the person who invested the labor. With the parameters, it would mean man can only take enough land to provide the harvest for himself and his family, who will work the land. A larger plot that wouldn’t be worked regularly or that would produce too much food would be wrong. Locke finds labor, or work, the value that man possesses. Anything that man put forth labor into, then in turn, belonged to that man.
John Locke was one of the most revolutionary political thinkers of the seventeenth century, and possibly of all time. His ideas regarding natural rights had major effects on almost every western society, most notably the United States. Locke’s ideas were crucial in the crafting of the United States Constitution and more importantly, the creation of American culture, both social, governmental, and economic. Locke was the inspiration for the three branch government system in America along with the representative democracy and the government acting as a third party to protect the rights of the people and to settle disputes. Economically, America is a highly commercial society with little government interference with business and personal income other than taxes levied by the government. American society almost mirrors Locke’s idea of a commercial society with individuals spending their time working to make money in a capitalist society and then spending said money and doing whatever they please when they are not working. Locke’s influence on the United States is so substantial that he could arguably be named as one of the founding fathers. Though Locke’s philosophy has been important to American society for years, and his ideas are still used in contemporary politics, it is necessary to examine modern America and decide if Lockean philosophy is appropriate for the America of today.
“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
Locke believed that all men are born with natural rights and they are the right to life, liberty, and property Locke said "Life refers to the fact that people want to live and will fight to survive. Liberty means that people want to be as free as possible. Property represents the fact that people want to own things that help them survive, such as land, food, and tools." Locke claims that these rights aren't given to people and that people are born with them.
In his writings, he proclaimed his opinion of mans natural right. He believed every man had the right to life, liberty, and property. That the government should put its efforts into protecting these God given rights, for the power the government holds is given to it by the people. Locke states, “But though men, when they enter into society give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of Nature into the hands of society. . . ” He is explaining the sacrifices people make by moving into an organized society. He states that by giving up these things, protection is placed upon the persons property, because governments make laws to protect each citizens rights. However, in some cases, when the general public believe fit, the people can remove their legislative power. They then can replace it with someone who respects the power given to them, and follows the peoples wishes instead of their own
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
In that vein, there exists natural competition between men over food and other necessities, and although the stronger may yield temporary power over the weaker in an individual situation, the power is neither absolute nor permanent. All men have both a responsibility and a right to enforce the law of nature, and therefore punish those who break it. “That in the State of Nature, every one has the Executive Power of the Law of Nature.” (Locke, Second Treatise, II.13). Equality is maintained.
John Locke believed that all people have the right to property. Property included one’s own body and anything that someone’s labor has produced. The right to one’s own body is considered the freedom to live life and pursue happiness without interference from others. The right to something that one’s labor has produced comes from Locke’s idea
In order to understand Locke’s vision for a perfect government, he first wanted to define the driving force behind men. Locke believed that there were three primary natural rights a man had: the right to life, liberty, and property. In life, Locke. being a man of God, believed that men are all created equally and no one should outrank the highest authority, God. In the matter of liberty, “a man…is absolutely free to dispose of himself or his possessions, but he isn’t at liberty to destroy himself, or even to destroy any created thing in his possession…” (3), meaning men should do everything they can to protect each others rights. Locke states, “…because we are all equal and independent, no-one ought to harm anyone else in his life, health, liberty, or possessions (3). This was the basis for Locke’s social contract theory, that men have natural laws to protect and preserve their liberties and in exchange for a government that would protect these laws, some
Locke makes it clear that one individual does not own or have the right over another individual’s life, due to the equal creation of all individuals under one God (Locke 8). An individual has the right over their own body and laws that encourage one individual’s ownership over another is unjust and not natural to humanity (17). Property also plays an important role in Locke’s philosophy because it seems to be an extension of an individual’s right over one’s self. Slavery requires labor and this labor produces, this labor is also a person’s private property and violation of this could be considered violation of an individual’s right over their own life.
We must first determine what is being said in the constitution when they wrote, “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.” Analyzing this we can see that Locke was stating that everyone is equal, and is born with certain "inalienable" natural rights. These rights are given to us by God and can never be taken or even given away by any force,
If all human beings are to use the earth to their ‘best advantage' and the earth is the common property of all, someone somewhere will have conflicting interests with another human being over the possession of some thing. The only remedy is to sacrifice his/her equality by consent (It is not likely that one would surrender equality to another) OR to enter a ‘state of war.' The only protection against the state of war in John Locke's opinion is to enter into civil society governed by a common authority. By taking this measure, Locke insists humankind can better protect itself against war and preserve the right to enjoy what one possesses, ". . . because no political society can be, nor subsist, without having in itself the power to preserve the property" [pg. 18].