The Role Of Government In John Locke's Second Treatise On Civil Government

In 1981, the nation was a loose confederation of states, which each operated like an independent country. The government had no judicial branch or executive officer. It lacked the authority to enforce its requests for money or troops from states. Since recently earning independence, the founders and public sought to protect the following in the Constitution: freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, the right to not be subject to unreasonable seizures or searches, the right to not be forced to quarter soldiers, the right to due process of the law, the right to a fast and public trial by jury with counsel, the right to a civil trial by jury, the right to not be subjected to excessive bail and cruel punishment, and protection of state’s rights. Current protections and responsibility of states and Americans found in the U.S. Constitution were based upon John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, the Magna Carta, and the English Bill of Rights.

I am John Locke. I heard that you're going to have a meeting with the statesman. So, I decided to give you my ideas about the government that would inspire you. As you know it's really important to give citizens their natural rights (life, liberty, and property). Because I believed that everyone was born free, equal, and independent. And the meaning of my natural rights are life: everyone is entitled to live. Liberty: everyone is entitled to do anything they want to so long as it doesn't conflict with the first right. Property: everyone is entitled to own all they create or gain through gift or trade so long as it doesn't conflict with the first two rights. Another thing if the government agrees to give citizens their natural rights. I've

Locke’s idea of the state of nature men had kept their promises and honoured their obligations. In locke’s first treatise he argued that there was no divine right for monarchs, because God didn't put men above others and therefore everyone was equal. In his second treatise he strikes Hobbes and speaks his thought on the state of nature “man is free and in this condition all men equal”. For Locke, in the state of nature all men are free to order their actions, of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the of the law of nature. This idea influenced him to believe that human nature is represented by reason and tolerance the reasoning was "The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it", and that law is the reason. Much different than Hobbes, who had believed people were selfish and needed to be

Does the desire for power result in a conflict in society? John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government demonstrates how personal interests are the root of injustice. Personal interests possess aspects of self-concern and selfishness. Injustice is the result of personal interests, which leads to working against society’s idea of perfect equality. Private interests such as the craving for power leads to the elimination of equality, and equal opportunity. Locke states that “men [are] biassed by their interest[s]” (Ch. IX, Sec. 124, Pg. 66), therefore personal interests are prejudiced. Man’s desire for power incites injustice that is reflected in three ways of private interests: a desire for wealth, property, and authority.

In his Second Treatise on Government Locke focus’ on liberalism & capitalism, defending the claim that men are by nature free and equal against the idea that God had made all people subject to a king. He argued that people have ‘natural rights’, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that hold the foundation for the major laws of a society. He says, “…we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit.” (2nd Treatise, Chapter 2, sec 4). John Locke used this claim, that all men were naturally free and equal, for understanding the idea of a government as a result of a social contract. This is where people in the state of nature transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better guarantee the steady and comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property.

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,

While reading the “The Second Treatise of Government,” you can notice and see that John Locke has a strong standing for civil rights as well as helping with the development of the Constitution of the United States. He states that the “consent of the governed,” is basically saying that communities are not put together by the divine right or ruled by. Paternal, familial, and political are types of powers that John Locke mentions that have all have unlike characteristics. He inspired others to believe in and want equal rights and democracy. John Locke talks about the state of nature, which basically states that no one has the power to be ruler of someone, as well as they are able to do what they want in a freely matter. In other words people are born just like anyone else that is born, and should have equally rights to property, health, and liberty, and that no one should have the power over anyone. Everyone should be able to live and enjoy his or her own freedom and wellbeing. However, the state of nature is not a guarantee to have natural laws, which could help with the protecting of one’s property. According to him having your own personal freedom was the true meaning of state of nature. John Locke thought that people were following his faith in human rationality through the declaration of Locke. John Locke states that if the government takes away from others for them to empower them then the people have right and opportunity to go against

In chapter two of John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, the idea of a natural law is introduced, and with this law, Locke brings forward several implications of how government is formed and run. Before there was government, everyone had equal rights, and land was a god given right to be shared by everyone. When people began to organize, they consented to give up certain rights to receive certain benefits. Locke argues that this is natural, as since men are equal, “all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal” (sec. 4). If every man provides help for others, everyone benefits. So, even though not everything is perfectly shared and distributed, equality remains, but is balanced through a more complex system.

The Second Treatise of Government provides Locke's theorizes the individual rights and involvement with the government; he categorizes them in two areas -- natural rights theory and social contract. 1.Natural state; rights which human beings are to have before government comes into being. 2.Social contact; when conditions in natural state are unsatisfactory, and there's need to develop society into functioning of central government.

In the beginning of Locke’s section we are given a quote about Sir Robert Filmer. Sir Robert Filmer really only gives the view from Aristotle which is that the sovereign and the people are two different things. For this view, the people are the ones who do NOT have the political power and Locke is against that view. he believes that the people are the ones who have the political power. For Locke, the state of nature is that all men are free. Society consists of all free individuals and each of those individuals lives their OWN life with their OWN desires. I also agree with his idea that “liberty is not license.” Freedom does not mean that you have the ability to do absolutely whatever you want. There are still laws that you must abide

In the text “Second Treatise of Government” by John Locke various themes were presented such as the theme of Dissolution of Government and the Dissolution of the Society. If the society or government is corrupt then it won’t work in either way according to my opinion. In order to have a stable government, a stable society it is necessary to have which provides rules and regulations. Imagine a society without rules & regulations. How chaotic it must be without order and discipline. If both the government and the society work with each other it creates some form of order. In most countries today people do not have a voice in government. The feature I thought about in this particular chapter is about politics in general. I thought about

Locke feels that this system of government is lacking in that the ruler has all control, and may not be stopped in abuses of power, which Locke fears. Humans beings decide to form a society out of the state of nature because there must be unity among men in order to protect one another, and so that they may punish offenders of the justice. Men do this under the rule of an indivdual who is selected by the people, and to whom the people give up some of their personal rights.Though humans give up certain rights to the chosen authoriy, they are entitled to certain rights reserved to them alone, which they hold within the society. 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. The law of nature states that people attain property through the labour they do.The ruler or authority over a society should be an indivdual

Q: How does Warner describe the impact of the political theorist John Locke on governments in the “New Worlds” and how does this reflect the impact of theory on government? Warner also discusses the role of technology. How does he describe the effect of industrialization on war?

John Locke’s views on property and liberty, as outlined in his Second Treatise of Government (1690), have had varying interpretations and treatments by subsequent generations of authors. At one extreme, Locke has been claimed as one of the early originators of Western liberalism, who had sought to lay the foundations for civil government, based on universal consent and the natural rights of individuals. [1] Others have charged that what Locke had really done, whether intentionally or unintentionally, was to provide a justification for the entrenched inequality and privileges of the bourgeoisie, in the emerging capitalist society of seventeenth

Locke regarded humans naturally in “a state of perfect freedom to order their actions” (Locke Two treatises ex.4). Along with this comes unbounded indulgence of the benefits of law of nature whereby men “has by nature a power, not only to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men; but to judge of, and punish the breaches of that law in others” (Locke Two treatises ex.87). In addition, “it was not good for him to be alone, put him under strong obligations of necessity, convenience, and inclination to drive him into society” (Locke Two treatises ex.77). Locke views that the formation of government “derive[d] from God’s will” (Dunn 2003, p. 37) and originated from men’s need to protect their property as a collective, where a common