Locke\'s Second Treatise of Government

Locke's Second Treatise Of Government

John Locke was one of the foremost political philosophers of his or indeed any time. His ideas helped shape the philosophies and arguments that the United States' founding fathers used in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. One of the most extensive and profound of his works regarding the nature, rights, and responsibilities of government is his Second Treatise on Government, which builds extensively on some of the general principles he outlined in his First Treatise on Government. In this first treatise, Locke asserted that there was no king on Earth in charge of all humanity, and that therefore men were all completely free.

Locke reasserts this claim at the beginning of his second chapter in the Treatise, "Of the State of Nature": "To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, 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, within the bounds of the law of nature" (Locke, 8). What Locke means by this is that all men are naturally free, and the only law that applies to them -- and indeed, the only law that applies to anything in the world -- is the law of nature, or reason. Governments and all political agreements are limits on this freedom provided by nature, and so at first it seems undesirable to have these governments. But the law of nature, according to Locke, says that all things should be equal, and without a way to enforce this law men -- who like other creatures tend to be unjust in their own favors -- are likely to misapply the law to themselves, and act in ways that are against the laws of nature. This situation leaves the stronger individuals in charge of the weak.

Locke maintains that all men have the same exact rights under the law of nature, including the "right to punish the offender, and be executioner of the law of nature" (Locke, 10). In a perfect world even this measure of correcting or punishing behavior would not be necessary -- man would have no need for government if everyone was capable of and willing to adhere to the law of nature, and treat everyone else with complete equality. This is not the case, however, and so the law of nature also demands that everyone be allowed to punish another. Locke claims that there are always men who still enjoy this state of nature -- they are the princes and leaders of independent kingdoms, who are given the authority to punish whom and how they see fit. Locke uses this fact to assert the naturalness of this state of being for all of mankind, not just princes, saying "all men are naturally in that state [of nature], and remain so, till by their own consents they make themselves members of some politic society" (Locke, 13).

Disagreements under the law of nature lead to what Locke calls the state of war, in which one man who feels himself wronged takes on the right -- indeed, is granted the right by the law of nature -- to destroy the one that wronged him. In addition, other just men may join in the attempt to destroy the unjust, while those on the unjust side -- who will not think of themselves as unjust and therefore will see that they have every right to defend themselves -- will then attempt to destroy their destroyers, as under the law of nature they have the right to defend themselves from destruction. Thus, men on both sides of the issue will feel as though they are acting righteously according to the law of nature in attempting to destroy everyone on the other side of the issue, because "when all cannot be preserved, the safety of the innocent is to be preferred," and both sides will consider themselves to be the innocents that were wronged by the other side (Locke, 14). This state is what Locke means by the "state of war," and is one of the reasons governments exist, he claims.