Nature In John Locke's Second Treatise Of Government

Nature plays a huge role in the “Second Treatise of Government” by John Locke which was read and analyzed throughout class. Anthropocentrism is highlighted throughout Locke’s text; the belief that humans are at a higher value on earth opposed to everything else. Locke brings in the question of what kind of state is nature classified as with it comes to his political theory?; Intrinsic or Instrumental. Locke's political theory is that each person has a right to product of his or her labor (rights of property). Through his theory, the bridge between humans and nature is diminished. David Abram essay, “The Mechanical and the Organic: On the Impact of Metaphor in Science” serves as a lense to deeper analyze the “Second Treatise of Government” and

The mechanistic view implies that “the material world is, at least in principle, entirely predictable” and it operates like a machine, “it has no creativity, no spontaneity on it’s own” (Abram 1). A machine is something man has power over; we don't need it to survive, we created it to help us. The way nature is presented in Locke’s text is equivalent. We use it. The mechanistic philosophy results in humans separating themselves from earth and classifying themselves to be superior to it. The state of nature specifies man is superior on earth to everything else. This then leads to undermining natures abilities, and it’s values. Nature is then perceived as mechanistic superficialized value and is undermined. Machines are concocted with production, calling the world a “machine” is implying that nature is a source of production. One cannot do that, because humans should not assume that the world is limitless. Natural resources are finite and once all of it is used, our existence as humans in the society is