Su Ji Noh
1. In Chapter 2, we see Locke arguing that persons have basic rights against subjugation. He claims that the state of nature is a state of freedom and equality. The law of nature, derived from the state of nature, obliges everyone that “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” So, independent of political institutions, the law of nature prohibits one from violating another’s natural rights to life, health, liberty, or possessions. Additional to the rights to life, liberty and property, Locke argues that every person has a right to reparation and restraint. Everyone has the right to punish those who disobey the law of nature and the right to compensate from those who have violated their natural rights. Locke argues that all persons have a natural right to defend themselves from moral invaders and that “the safety of the innocent is to be preferred: and one may destroy a man who makes war upon him.”
2. Locke thinks that you are your own property. His labor, the work of his hands that is mixed with the land, is all his own. Everyone has the natural right to do whatever he wants with whatever he owns so long as he does not violate other’s rights. Mixing labor, producing, is a moral
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government. Even silence and compliance to the laws can be seen as “consent which makes anyone a member of any commonwealth.” Throughout my life, I have behaved in such a way that is consistent with me accepting the laws of the United States government. I have enjoyed the “dominions of government” that can be seen as tacitly consenting. I have utilized public goods, enjoy the protection from the police force, have utilized public highways, parks, have paid taxes, etc. All of this can amount to me giving tacit consent to the legitimacy of the laws of the United States on the principles that one should not free