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Inequality In John Locke's Second Treatise Of Government

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Second Treatise of Government proposes government as a naturally occurring consequence of a state of nature. Inequality caused by market-based economies is an intentional and necessary path that bridges the spread between the state of nature to the existence of a commonwealth. In Locke’s presentation, unequal possession seems to be an inevitable consequence. This inequality, however, is a necessary transition out of the state of nature. The agreement to currency, and the injustice it brings, is the basis for the overall consent to the Commonwealth. The existence of inequality is naturally introduced and maintained throughout Locke’s argument. In the state of nature, men exist in a “state of perfect freedom” over their actions, possessions, and persons, bound by the laws, or law, of …show more content…

For this idea, the existence of money changes the value of human labor. Men are welcome to whatever they can produce, but they are not permitted to waste. If one creates a surplus, currency provides a means to transfer his labor to others and store this value for later. Money therefore only exists to store the value of work. This notion is far more profound because the ability of man to labor is unequal, and the ability of a man to obtain currency is also unequal. These forms of inequality form a clear path away from the state of nature. Society must be refined to allow men to perform better within the law of nature because the state of nature is admittedly imperfect. The inequality inherent in labor-defined property and currency should be moderated such that all men have the ability to obtain what is necessary for their survival and health. A contract must be created to punish those who violate the law of nature. It must preserve and regulate the property of those who use resources to ensure ensures the currency is a faithful store of labor

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For the purpose of this paper, I will explore how James Harrington’s, Commonwealth of Oceana, and Montesquieu’s, The Spirit of Laws, are primarily irreconcilable with Locke’s understanding of property as it relates to the purpose of liberty in a republican form of government. I will contend that Harrington and Montesquieu's ideas on sumptuary tax and land reform will provide a republic with a fuller sense of stability, at the cost of liberty, than Locke’s understanding of property as the basis and purpose of government as represented by his work in Second Treatise on Civil Government. First, I will examine how Montesquieu’s adoption of sumptuary laws primarily inhibit a republic's individual's basic natural liberty by limiting their freedom to obtain what the citizens choose. Secondly, I will prove Harrington’s land reform and Montesquieu’s inheritance tax provide a

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John Locke asserted that government must come from the consent of the governed. The Declaration of Independence professed the right of all people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution cemented the paramount prominence of general welfare for all United States citizens. Since our beginning, we the people have been a characteristically empathetic majority. But we have not always been a beacon of equality: the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, the Stonewall Riots, and even current conflicts between the police force and black Americans exemplify the occasional rift between the government and the governed.

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The state of nature serves as a portrayal of the human being prior to the contemporary state or society, being utilized by social contract theorists to present their understanding of both human nature and the development of government. John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, two iconic seventeenth-century writers, are among many to have submitted versions of such conditions in their works, Two Treatises of Government, and Leviathan. Although there may appear to be points of similarity, their differing accounts of pre-societal man is largely responsible for their contrasting stances on the emergence of the modern state and its sources of legitimate power. Each writer provides a separate lens through which readers can investigate their understandings of

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Ideas and critiques about the government and the commonwealth have been debated ever since authoritative figures first began to preside over societies, or the common man. Of these ideas, the concept of what the commonwealth is and how it should be best implemented is especially contended. There are a myriad of different varieties of interpretations, as seen in the stark differences in opinion between Cicero’s 54 BC treatise On the Commonwealth and Thomas Hobbes’ 1651 work The Leviathan. The contrasting definitions of the commonwealth, its historical necessity, and the best tactic of its implementation into society of the governed are much debated between these two pieces.

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Locke says that in order for us to get out of the state of nature, it is a two-stage process. First, we must unanimously consent to construct a civil society. Going into a civil society requires unanimous consent because everyone needs to give up some of their rights, such as the right to punish. Nobody can take any person's rights away from them, only the people themselves can give up those rights if they so wish. Once a civil society is formed and everyone has transferred some rights to the whole group, a commonwealth can be formed.

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This essay will use primary sources and academic journals to compare Locke's State of Nature with the United States government. Locke believed that in the State of Nature, everyone has perfect equality, and what one may do, all must do. The executive power of the law of nature is distributed equally among everyone. This concept is similar to the democratic principles founded by the United States government. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson writes that "all men are created equal" and have the unalienable rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

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removed the definitions of the rights he had been given in terms of what threatened them lost their bearings and at the same time their content (Mead, 1915). Once man committed wrong, he equivalently enters to the state of war which I insist to be a situation where man already dethrones natural rights he have. Locke is right when he mentioned that he that in the state of nature would take away the freedom that belongs to any one in that state must necessarily supposed to have a design to take away everything else, that freedom being the foundation of all the rest (Prometheus Books , 1986). No man has the right to use natural right for the sake of performing wrong for the betterment of the society. Speech of man supposed to be the powerful

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Locke’s definition of liberty depends on whether the person is in the state of nature, in which people are “without subordination or subjection” (Locke 101) or if they have formed into a commonwealth, or whenever “any number of men are so united into one society, as to quit every one his executive power of the law of nature, and resign it to the public” (Locke 137-38). In the Lockean state of nature, men have a “freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons” (Locke 101). This freedom is still limited by what Locke refers to as the law of nature, or that “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” (Locke 102). He also defines the liberty of the state of nature as “not to be under any will or legislative authority of man” (Locke 109). In his form of commonwealth, there is more limited freedom, in which liberty is to “be under no legislative power, but that established, by the consent of the commonwealth” (Locke 110).

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John Locke wrote The Second Treatise of Government and within it he expresses his views of how he believed that private property can be originally appropriated and that it can cause inequalities in terms of wealth. The Discourse of Inequalities, written by Jean Jacque Rousseau, can be used to criticize this because of its own particular way of viewing what is natural and unnatural inequality as well as his beliefs of the modernization of civilizations. In this treaties, Locke explains that the law of nature is basically a state of equality in which the people have no power over one another and they are free to do as they so please. Here, he is careful to state that this is not giving the people the license to abuse others or to be destructive.

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For man only relinquishes two powers - the ability to do whatever one wishes which is now regulated by a legislature (Locke 9.129:180), and the power of punishment which falls under executive authority (Locke 9.130:180). Despite these two forfeitures, each individual is guaranteed the opportunity to "preserve himself his liberty and property" (Locke 9.131:180). Likewise, individuals of the society are granted a consistent interpretation of the otherwise vague laws of nature (Locke 7.89:159). In this way, there is never a tradeoff of liberty for security, but an equal enhancement of

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1491 Words | 6 Pages

He believes we cannot judge another’s needs - for needs are subjective, he argues that the demand for goods drives their production rather than supply, and he reflects on the inability for governments to increase happiness. Menger takes a scientific view of economics which, although limiting, analyzes what he considers to be fundamental principles of economics. Adam Smith places derives value from either utility of a good, or its ability to be exchanged for other goods. Smith refuted the Mercantilist belief that all the value of the world is fixed by claiming that, because value is determined by utility, and because value is increased when goods are processed, the total value of goods in the world will increase via labor. Labor, according to Smith, is the root of value - and the division of labor allows more and more goods to

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In Book Two of Two Treatises on Government, John Locke endeavors to offer a theory of punishment to inform governmental practice, by launching an investigation of the various beliefs that inform our social structure, based on the idea of a social contract. As part of this, Locke presents ideas surrounding the ‘state of nature’ to create an account of his social contract theory. Through this process, Locke outlines a scheme for justifying and endorsing punishment as a method of protecting individual freedom and equality. It becomes important to study and understand Locke’s theory of punishment as it informed legislature and continues to inform socio-political norms as well as the animus in the United States (Suess, 368). For the purpose of this paper, I will begin by reconstructing Locke’s theory of punishment though an account of his social contract theory.

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As Locke explains, “The same law of nature, that does by this means give us property, does also bound that property too” (Second Treatise, pg.14). Locke begins this argument by stating that man cannot take as much as he wants. God has given us great amounts of land and other things for our use and convenience but, “how far has he given it to us?” Man can only take “as much as any one can make us of to any advantage of life before it spoils” (Second Treatise, pg. 14) and must leave as much and as good for all the other men that follow. God gave the earth to man in order to improve it for the benefit of life.

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Locke's most important and influential political writings are contained in his Two Treatises on Government. The first treatise is concerned almost exclusively with refuting the argument that political authority was derived from religious authority. The second treatise contains Locke’s own constructive view of the aims and justification for civil government. According to Locke, the State of Nature, the natural condition of mankind, is a state of perfect and complete liberty to conduct one's life as one best sees fit, free from the interference of others. This does not mean, however, that it is a state of license: one is not free to do anything at all one pleases, or even anything that one judges to be in one’s interest.

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Only those who are born with true philosophical understanding can rule. In the Second Treatise by John Locke, Locke addresses the state of nature, which is essentially equality and freedom. Even though people have liberty, they still need to obey natural laws. On the contrary of Plato’s just city, Locke believes that absolute authority is not a civil government. A civil society is where the majority rules.

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