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JOHN LOCKE'S POLITICAL THEORY.
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Essay Subject:
Views on govt., property, individual liberty, God, common goodconsent.... More...
4 Pages / 900 Words
1 sources, 6 Citations, APA Format
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Paper Abstract:
Views on govt., property, individual liberty, God, common goodconsent.

Paper Introduction:
John Locke wrote at a time of social unrest and questioning, at a time when the long-standing sovereignty of kings as ordained by God was being questioned. Locke did not see the power of kings as derived from the will of God but rather as developing as the result of some social condition. Locke asked first what state man would be in if there were no government, and he found that human beings originated in the state of nature, the state that existed before human beings came together to form a society and a government. Locke saw this state of nature as placing the individual into a state of perfect freedom, with no necessity to ask any other person before determining his or her own actions or disposing of their own property. Property was an essential element in Locke's thinking, with the relationship of the individual to his property as being of paramount importance. The

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Both rights and propertydepend first on the gift of God and second on the consent of others insociety, and this is where the social contract enters in as individualsband together and accept the concept of private property, the concept thattheir labor produces private property which can then be protected fromothers. Locke sees humanbeings as having agreed to give up certain rights and powers through someform of agreement. Locke'ssolution is interesting and is based on the idea that each person has theright to his or her own person. He by his labor does, as it were, enclose it from the common(Locke 17).Private property in this sense is allowable because first it is acquiredthrough personal effort and second because there is always more left forthe common good: Nor was the appropriation of any parcel of land, by improving it, any prejudice to any other man, since there was still enough, and as good left; and more than the yet unprovided could use (Locke 18).In addition, this is allowable because it is done with the consent ofothers in society: Nor will it invalidate his right to say, everybody else has an equal title to it; and therefore he cannot appropriate, he cannot enclose, without the consent of all his fellow-commoners, all mankind (Locke 17). The state of natureis absolutely free, but it is also uncertain and insecure. Rights are thought of as possessed bygroups and individuals, and the fact that their bodies are also theirproperty makes property and rights essentially the same sort of thing. Theexercise of rights is to allow such labor and to protect the right of theindividual to labor and thus to create property. For Locke,the defense of individual liberty is inseparable from the defense ofprivate property. Locke saw this state of nature as placing theindividual into a state of perfect freedom, with no necessity to ask anyother person before determining his or her own actions or disposing oftheir own property. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1956. Anincursion into one is an incursion into the other. This original state of joint ownership has given way toprivate ownership, and Locke had to account for this change. Locke writes, God gave the world to men in common; but since he gave it to them for their benefit, and the greatest conveniences of life they were capable to draw from it, it cannot be supposed he meant it should always remain common and uncultivated (Locke 18).Such cultivation would be accomplished through labor, and this act of laborseparates property from belonging only to nature: As much land as a mantills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much ishis property. Each individual has the property of his orher own body and of the work of their hands. By identifying the body with property, Locke joins rights andproperty in a way he could not do if he were speaking or property only interms of external possessions. Locke did not see the power of kings as derived from thewill of God but rather as developing as the result of some socialcondition. Property was an essential element in Locke's thinking,with the relationship of the individual to his property as being ofparamount importance. Private property rights are to be protected by thisstate that has been created--human beings have given up certain rights inorder to assure the protection of their property from the depredations ofothers. He says that mankind's rights to the bounties of naturecomes from God's grant in the Scriptures, from man's rationality, and fromthe fundamental natural law of self-preservation: 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. Society is thus formed when men cede certain powers toa central authority. Locke, John. Property in the external world is thus broughtinto being through the labor of the essential property of the body. Locke asked first what state man would be in if there were nogovernment, and he found that human beings originated in the state ofnature, the state that existed before human beings came together to form asociety and a government. Locke develops the concept of property by extending it from thecollective to the individual. The Second Treatise of Government. The individual in society does not have absolute freedom, showingthat something has been lost from the state of nature. Property for Locke seems to symbolize rights in concreteform, as something a human being can conceive of as distinguishable fromhim or herself even though they may be also seen as a part of the self. Locke traces the concept of private property from the time whenGod gave the world to Adam and his posterity. Property is justified in Locke's thinking asa divine gift. Locke sees political poweras being "for the regulating and preserving of property" (Locke 4), amongother things. Government isformed, says Locke, for the protection of property, including the ultimateproperty in the person himself, for as noted, the individual is first ofall in possession of the private property of his or her own body. Locke sees the purpose of government as protecting these propertyrights, for that is the reason human beings ceded some of their authorityand rights to a governing entity in the first place. Property as defined byLocke is linked to the physical person because it is a product of the laborof that physical person. John Locke wrote at a time of social unrest and questioning, at atime when the long-standing sovereignty of kings as ordained by God wasbeing questioned. The earth and all that there is therein is given to men for the support and comfort of their being (Locke 15).This means, though, that the goods of nature are held in common and not byany individual. The ownership of property was seen as a fundamentalright, meaning that it was a right born in the state of nature. Inaddition, Locke believes that an individual's attributes, such as freedom,equality, and the power to execute the law of nature can also become thesubject of consent and therefore the subject of negotiation with others.Politics also derives from the conjunction of property and rights.

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