Locke's Two Treatises of Government

Locke's Two Treatises of Government

John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government reflect the anti-absolutist sentiments woven throughout England’s political fabric. He outlined the Law of Nature and how it granted each person the right to life, liberty, health, and property, maintaining that one owned a resource -- say, a certain plot of land -- if one put one’s labor into it (Locke). Locke’s views on private property were relevant in the New World as well as in the Old. In England, they sowed the seeds for discord as peasants became increasingly cognizant of ownership and complained to the nobles about taxation; in America, both the Puritan work ethic and the mindset that labor equaled ownership presented a unique problem for colonies, involving not just the rulers overseas but the Native Americans who had already established their own civilizations (Locke).

Though Locke supported government over anarchy due to his belief that society was integral to maintaining order and keeping man’s inherent selfishness in check, he was a prominent proponent of social contract theory, which requires consent of both the ruler and the ruled for the contract to be validated (Locke). Moreover, he asserted the right of the ruled to overthrow their ruler when their rights were infringed upon (Locke). These ideas were essential to the philosophy underlying later revolutions, including the French Revolution.

John Locke

John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Thomas Hollis (London: A. Millar et al., 1764). [Online] available from http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/222; accessed 10/21/2018; Internet.

John Locke. “Two Treatises of Civil Government.” Online Library of Liberty, Liberty Fund. Web.
(http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/john-locke-two-treatises-1689)

1689

Cassidy Bins

Public domain.