John Locke: The Second Treatise on Civil Government

The state of nature (Locke)

"A state of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another"

John Locke education

attend Oxford later spend 15 years working at Oxford

John Locke birth

born to a family of Puritans in 1632; Wrington, Somerset, England

Why was John Locke a hypocrite?

Says all men are equal and independent but he says blacks are less also, he owned slaves

John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

He wrote that all human beings have a right to life, liberty, and property and that governments exist to protect those rights. He rejected the theory of the Divine Right of the monarchy, and believed that government was based upon a "social contract" that existed between a government and its people. If the government failed to uphold its end of the contract by protecting those rights, the people could rebel and institute a new government.

"A state of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another"

John Locke

"Man in the state of nature [has] an uncontrollable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not a liberty to destroy himself, or so much as any creature in his possession" (498).

John Locke

"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 laws of nature"

John Locke

Who does Locke first work for that helps him in Government?

Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper; Locke became the Secretary of the board of Trade and Plantations and Secretary to the Lords Proprietor of Carolina

How is Locke similar to Hobbes?

Three points of agreement: Men are by nature free Men are by nature equal Men are inherently rational Both agree humans are rational, independent and equal