31795

Locke

May 10, 2023•1,298 words

Life

John Locke (1632 - 1704)

Early life

  • Early Life
    • Grew up during a busy period of English political and intellectual history
    • Born in Wrington to Puritan parents of modest means
    • His father was a lawyer that served in a cavalry company on the Puritan side early in the the English Civil War
    • His father’s commander (Alexander Popham) later became the local MP, who supported Locke’s studies
    • 1647: Locke does to Wesmtinster School in London
    • 1652: He moves to Christ Church, Oxford
    • He was critical of the Oxford method of teaching
    • He majored in medicine, and was able to help the treat the Earl of Shaftesbury

  • Career

    • He enters the circle of the Earl of Shaftesbury, who had similar ideologies
    • 1675: Both fled to France to flee the Monarchy
    • 1682: Fled to Holland
    • Returns to England with the Glorious Revolution and restoration of parliament power

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Philosophy

  • Philosophical empiricism
    • The idea that all concepts originate in experience
    • All concepts are about or applicable to what can be experienced,
    • All rationally acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience
    • Education
    • Importance of educating children, their rationality should be fostered
    • The idea of liberty is reflected in the power of the mind over one’s own actions, especially the power to suspend actions to towards ones’s own desires until after a full consideration of the object
    • We begin life as a blank slate (Tabula Rasa), everything we believe or known is based on experience
    • Children are susceptible, but the thoughts they gain are more important than those adults gain because it shapes them forever
  • State of Nature (or law of nature)
    • Tabula rasa
    • People have inherent reason and tolerance
    • They are born as free, equal, and independent
    • People are not born as sinners
    • Property
    • Disrupts harmonious state of nature
    • A government is needed to protect property other force becomes the way to resolve conflicts
    • The right to hold possessions
    • Right to possession of anything that is not claimed
    • No one ought to harm another’s life, liberty or possessions
    • This is a law that the state of nature
    • Right to punish those who violate our right to hold possessions
    • Right to restitution for stolen or damaged property
    • Not about force or power, like Hobbes’ theory, but moral right
    • Man has a right to punish transgressors against property
  • Social Contract
    • Rights by nature
    • Right to life, liberty, and property
    • Must be recognized and respected by the authority
    • We have ownership over our body and labor, slavery is wrong
      • His conduct did not match this, with the constitution of the Carolinas
      • Invested in companies that exploited Africans
    • Give up some rights to government, but the sovereign has a duty to enforce and protect the rights we as citizens hold under the state of nature
    • This includes right to religion, the state does not have the right to determine the true faith, nor the right to enforce its view of faith onto its citizens
    • Locke Social Contract vs Hobbes’
    • Individuals can hold right dictated by the state of nature which the gov can enforce
    • Gov cannot infringe on people’s rights
    • Individuals have the right to rebel against a gov that infringes on their rights
    • Governance
    • People should be involved in the law making process - individuals should contribute to the righting and drafting of laws
    • Separation of powers is necessary
    • If consent of the people is lost, or the rights from nature violated, people have a right to rebel
    • Against monarchy, likely favored a republic or representative or constitutional government
  • Religion
    • separation of church and state/religious freedom
    • The state, or all mankind, cannot evaluate the claims of truth contended between religious standpoints
    • Enforcing a religion/religious belief is wrong because you cannot compel someone to believe through violence
    • Coercing religious uniformity leads to more social disorder than religious diversity
    • The state should have naught to do about men’s souls, only their well-being

Two Treatises on Government

  • Divine right of Kings
    • In the first book he refutes the theological basis for leadership
    • He argues men are indeed naturally free, not all legitimate gov is absolute monarchy
    • Argues neither scripture nor reason supports the divine monarchy, men are not slaves of the descendants of Adam
    • Argues that the monarchy is not a legitimate institution
  • Formation of government
    • Argued that government does not need to be made and maintained by force.
    • An alternate account of the origin of government is needed lest men fall into the dangerous belief that all government in the world is merely the product of force and violence
  • Natural rights
    • The rights we have before government exists
    • We have a right to struggle for survival, the right to a means to survive
    • The state of nature is less desirable, so some rights are given up to government
    • The right to hold possessions and defend and punish those that harm your property

  • Government

    • Political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defense of the common-wealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good. (Treatises, II, 1,3)
    • The state of nature is not necessarily the state without government, but a government without political power
    • Should have the consent of the people (or a majority)

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Impact

  • Heavily influential on U.S constitution
    • Parts of the constitution are drawn right for his work (life, liberty, property)
    • Influenced the idea of government by and for the people rather than reestablishment of Monarchy
    • After Locke’s death, he was seen as a traitor for inspiring the American revolution
  • Classical Liberalism
    • Considered the father of the movement; characterized by:
    • Gov that has a duty to protect life, liberty, and property
    • Laissez-faire economics and free trade
    • Civil liberties and rights
    • Separation of church and state
    • Religious freedom
    • Opposition to government power
    • Government by the people
    • Religious freedom
    • Quite revolutionary for the time
    • Religion was a great source of conflict
    • He felt certain beliefs should not be tolerated, such as atheism, since religion instills morals or intolerant religions (Islam and Catholics)
    • Free trade
    • He did not live up to his vision of free trade, he supported mercantilism
  • Democracy
    • Should a democracy tolerate intolerance?
    • Influenced the formation of governments by and for the people, governed by consent
  • Property
    • Can be derived form nature
    • There is unclaimed property in nature, labor changes nature and therefore creates a claim to that property
    • If property is spoiled or unused, it can be taken by the government
  • Enlightenment
    • Becomes a movement after 1750
    • Locke is considered the father of the enlightenment
    • Also known as the Age of Reason
    • Applies the scientific method and reasoning to government as well
    • Reason became the source of authority, not government or religion
    • The natural equality of man arises at this time too
  • Conclusion
    • Leads to what shapes the modern world:
    • Rule of Law
    • Equality
    • Liberty
    • Democracy
    • Capitalism
    • Science and Reason
    • Secularism
    • Religious tolerance
    • \

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