Locke Quiz
According to Professor Smith, Locke is something like an honorary founding father of the United States of America.
True
According to Professor Smith, for Locke there are no natural limits to property acquisition.
True
According to Locke, the only just way to divide the earth among men would have been for the descendants of Adam and Eve to have made a compact with each other.
False
According to Locke, to speak of the executive power vested in an absolute monarchy is to speak of the society of which it is its lawful representative.
False
According to Locke, when any number of men agree to incorporate into a commonwealth, those who refuse to join remain in the state of nature, which means in a state of war with the commonwealth.
False
According to Professor Smith, Locke's conception of the state is unfamiliar to us because he wrote in the pre-modern age.
True
According to Locke, anyone who by purchase, gift, or inheritance acquires property in a commonwealth thereby unites himself with it and, barring some calamity, becomes perpetually obliged to be and remain unalterably a subject of it.
False
According to Locke, before the invention of money there was no limit on how much property anyone could acquire.
False
According to Locke, in a commonwealth all men except those entrusted with the making of laws should be subject to them.
False
According to Locke, in a commonwealth the executor of the law is really the supreme power because it is in its power to decide when, how, and to what extent to enforce the law.
False
According to Locke, in a commonwealth there can be one and only one supreme power at all times and under all circumstances, that of the people.
False
According to Locke, in quitting the state of nature men agreed that all of them but one should be under the restraint of laws.
False
According to Locke, in the natural state everyone has the right to help the victim of a crime to punish the transgressor, but not to assist him in extracting reparation for his loss.
False
According to Locke, in the state of nature, before the introduction of money, a man's property over the spontaneous products of nature extends only to as much as he and his family can gather, hunt, or fish for their own consumption or sustenance and nothing more--the rest remains in the commons for others to acquire in the same manner and, again, only for mere subsistence and nothing more.
False
According to Locke, the keeping of promises can only be expected under the civil law, not in the natural state where men have no obligations to each other.
False
According to Professor Smith, Locke's theory of constraint is closer to the theories of Aristotle than of Hobbes.
True
According to Locke, God condemned men to labor as punishment for Adam and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
False
According to Locke, God's will for the Jews was that they be ruled paternally, by a king
False
According to Locke, God's will for the Jews was that they be ruled paternally, by a king.
False
According to Locke, God, the Lord and Master of us all, has made clear who among us has an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty.
False
According to Locke, all a nation needs to grow rich is an abundance of land endowed with natural resources.
False
According to Locke, any number of men, in incorporating into a commonwealth, put themselves under an obligation, every one to everyone in that society, to submit to the determination of the majority.
False
According to Locke, the natural law operates only in the natural state; its relevance ceases upon the enactment of civil law by a duly constituted government.
False
According to Locke, whereas the spontaneous fruits of the earth are his who first gathers them, at least up to a point, property over the land itself requires compact among men in community.
False
According to Professor Smith, Locke regards as legitimate only a government that is ruled by the majority.
False
According to Professor Smith, a socialist America would not be inconsistent with Locke's conception of the ideal commonwealth.
False
According to Professor Smith, for Locke the state of nature was a historical condition, something that had been true of the distant past.
False
According to Professor Smith, it is practically impossible to treat the decision to incorporate a commonwealth as separate and distinct from the choice regarding the form of government under which the society will operate.
False
According to Professor Smith, it would be accurate to describe Locke's book as the product of a modern-day libertarian
False
According to Professor Smith, it would be accurate to describe Locke's book as the product of a radical revolutionary.
False
Citing Psalms 115:16 [""The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men."], Locke claims that God had bestowed the earth to mankind in common and had intended them to keep it that way, as a vast commons for everyone to enjoy.
False
Locke acknowledges that since most of the early commonwealths were ruled by one man, the pater familias or the bravest and most able warrior, this proves that government is by nature monarchical.
False
Locke concedes that there are no examples in history of any commonwealth being founded as he theorized, only that his is the only way that one should be incorporated.
False
Locke's idea that in the state of nature everyone is endowed with the right to execute the law of nature [the "executive right"] is equivalent to Hobbes' notion that in the state of nature everyone has a right to everything.
False
[Like Hobbes,] Locke argues that before the establishment of government man has a "right to everything."
False
According to Professor Smith, although Locke rules out absolute monarchy as incompatible with civil society, it seems as if he is rather neutral on forms of government.
True
In one complete sentence explain why, according to Locke, in their infancy most governments were almost all prerogative.
In there infancy most governments has one person leading and a sort of natural hierarchy.
According to Locke, whoever attempts to take away your freedom is a threat to your preservation, and thus may be dealt with accordingly.
True
In no more than two complete sentences, state the difference between the state of nature and the state of war, according to Locke.
The state of nature is one of peace while the state of war is one of Enemity and destruction
According to Locke, God implanted in man the ability to reason to make use of the earth to the best advantage of life and convenience.
True
According to Locke, a constitutuional design wherein the executive has no part of the legislative power and is visibly subordinate and accountable to it may be replaced at will.
True
According to Locke, a murderer, having renounced reason and declared war on all mankind, may be destroyed as a savage beast.
True
According to Locke, absolute monarchy does not qualify as a civil government.
True
According to Locke, any number of men, in incorporating into a commonwealth, put themselves under an obligation, every one to everyone in that society, to submit to the determination of the majority
True
According to Locke, anyone who freely puts himself under the authority of any government, even if but for a week, has given his tacit consent to be ruled by it for the duration of his stay.
True
According to Locke, as well as transferring to the commonwealth the judgement and punishment of offenses, every member of political society grants the community the right to employ his own force in the execution of its decisions.
True
According to Locke, by itself nature's yield is meager; it is man's labor which transforms the raw materials of nature into products, increasing their value to mankind many times over.
True
According to Locke, every new-born remains under his father's authority until he comes of age, at which point he may choose to unite himself to the commonwealth, remain in it, obeying its laws but without becoming a member, or quit it for another.
True
According to Locke, everyone who incorporates into a commonwealth unites himself with it and annexes to it his possessions, present or future, that do not belong to any other government.
True
According to Locke, for the purpose of preserving mankind in general, every man has a right to destroy, where necessary, things noxious to our preservation, including human transgressors of the law of nature.
True
According to Locke, he who establishes a property over any portion of the earth to make it produce more than what it does "spontaneously," without human labor, in effect gives a gift to the rest of mankind.
True
According to Locke, if a hoodlum armed with what appears to be a gun demands that you walk ahead of him to the nearest ATM to empty your bank account, you would be within your rights, if armed yourself, to kill him, instead.
True
According to Locke, in all well-framed governments the legislative and executive powers are placed in separate hands.
True
According to Locke, in his day an American Indian king had less or lower quality food, dwelling and clothing than an ordinary laborer in England.
True
According to Locke, in the natural state everybody has the right to kill a murderer.
True
According to Locke, in the natural state, what puts a distinction between what belongs to one person and what remains in common for the rest of mankind is his removing a portion of the common for his own use--to consume, barter, or give away to others.
True
According to Locke, in the state of nature all men are equal and free to act and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, constrained by no other man but only by the law of nature.
True
According to Locke, it is in the nature of a constituted commonwealth to act on behalf of the preservation of the community.
True
According to Locke, it is possible than in forming a commonwealth its members may agree to require that its decisions be made by more than a simple majority (50% +1) of its members.
True
According to Locke, it is safer for the people to vest the authority to legislate in a body of men than in a single man.
True
According to Locke, it is the law of nature that gives the government of one country the right to punish offenses against any of its citizens by citizens of another country.
True
According to Locke, man has an obligation to assist his fellow men when in need.
True
According to Locke, nobody has a right to a person's body, and hence of the labor of his body, but himself.
True
According to Locke, nothing can make any man a member of a commonwealth but his actually entering into it by positive engagement, and express promise and compact.
True
According to Locke, once anyone by actual agreement and express declaration has given his consent to be a member of a commonwealth, barring some calamity he becomes its perpetual subject and is never again free to return to the state of nature or quit that commonwealth for another.
True
According to Locke, originally, in the natural state, nobody had private dominion over the fruits or beasts of the earth.
True
According to Locke, people without recourse to an umpire or third party with authority to settle disputes and the power to punish offenders against the law remain in the state of nature.
True
According to Locke, private possessions, i.e., property, is a necessary consequence of man's condition.
True
According to Locke, that in his day there were so many lawful monarchies in the world only proved that historically people were free to leave one commonwealth and establish another somewhere else.
True
According to Locke, the authority of a magistrate over a subject is the same as that of father over his children.
True
According to Locke, the beginning of property begins in the act of a human being taking something out of the commons in order to consume it for his nourishment.
True
According to Locke, the civil law is right only insofar as it is founded on the law of nature, by which it is to be regulated and interpreted.
True
According to Locke, the community assumes the supreme power only when the government is dissolved.
True
According to Locke, the equality of men consists in the fact that all are born to the same advantage of nature and the use of the same faculties.
True
According to Locke, the greatest part of things really useful to the life of man the world over are things of short duration [i.e., perishable].
True
According to Locke, the power of making laws is that of specifying of punishments against transgressions committed among members of the society
True
According to Locke, to one who studies the natural law it comes easier to ascertain what it requires in particular circumstances than the civil law, in the intricacies of which are often hidden interests put into words.
True
According to Locke, transgressors against the law of nature quit the law of reason and become dangerous to mankind.
True
According to Locke, under civil society a portion of the country's territory may remain as a commons by compact.
True
According to Locke, when any number of men agree to incorporate into a commonwealth for the protection of their property and their "comfortable, safe, and peaceable living" with one another, they make up one body politic vested with the authority to act by the will and determination of the majority.
True
According to Professor Smith, Locke is entitled to be considered America's philosopher-king.
True
According to Professor Smith, many contemporary political problems in America are rooted in the Lockean constitutional design that our founders adopted [with amendations, to be sure].
True
According to Professor Smith, the fundamental law of nature in Locke's treatise, as in Hobbes', is the right of self-preservation.
True
According to Professor Smith, the influence of THE SECOND TREATISE on history testifies to the importance of ideas in politics.
True
Agreeing with Hobbes, Locke affirms that natural law forbids everyone from surrendering the fundamental, sacred right of self-preservation.
True
Agreeing with Hobbes, Locke affirms that neither God nor nature allow any man to neglect his own self=preservation.
True
Agreeing with Hobbes, Locke affirmst that people enter society in order to further their self-preservation.
True
Locke acknowledges that in their origins commonwealths generally were under the government of one man.
True
[Like Hobbes,] Locke postulates that men are subject to natural laws not of their own making.
True
What does Locke call the decision to wage a war against a despotic sovereign with designs to turn his subjects into slaves?
an appeal to heaven
What, according to Locke, puts a man in state of war with another?
declaring by word or deed a sedate, settled design upon his life
According to Locke, war is
enmity and destruction
According to Locke, a criminal injures only his victim, not the rest of society.
false
According to Professor Smith, Locke's vision of a commercial commonwealth is very much like Plato's Republic.
false
Suppose a thief pulls what appears to be a gun on you in a dark alley in Pensacola and demands your wallet; you yourself do not have a weapon, and hand it over. Then he walks away. Grabbing a two-by-four from a construction site, you pursue and hit him over the head while he's not looking, and retrieve your wallet. According to Locke, you
have done wrong
According to Locke absolute monarchy is consistent or inconsistent with civil society?
inconsistent
What, according to Locke, need we only consult to learn what the law of nature is in all its ramifications?
reason
According to Professor Smith, Locke's ideal regime must satisfy a number of characteristics.
rule of law; separation or subordination of powers; a limited or constitutional government; primacy of the legislature
According to Locke, in the state of nature what considerations enter to determine the appropriate punishment for a violator of the natural law?
severe enough to terrify others who would be tempted to commit the same deed; severe enough to induce the offender to repent of his deed; severe enough to satisfy the thirst for revenge to the offended party
Which one of Locke's ideas most inspired Thomas Jefferson, among other founding fathers, according to Professor Smith?
the consent of the governed
What right, according to Locke, is the foundation upon which all other rights rest secure?
the executive right
Locke labels the rule that says that "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (Genesis, 9:6) as
the great law of nature
According to Locke, the ultimate judge of whether prerogative is used for the good of the people is
the people themselves
According to Locke, under what conditions does God allow anyone to take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, liberty, health, limb, or goods of another?
to do justice to an offender against the law of nature
According to Locke, in the natural state the execution of the law of nature is placed in every man's hands; everyone has the right to punish those who violate it.
true
According to Professor Smith, Locke's theory holds that it is man's duty to enhance and work upon the raw materials provided by nature, and that by enriching themselves the industrious and the rational unintentionally work for the benefit of others.
true
According to Professor Smith, Locke's theory of property implies that we have a duty to strive to accumulate capital, for by laboring to enrich ourselves [by legal and moral means, naturally], we unintentionally work for the benefit of others.
true
According to Professor Smith, Locke's theory of property suggests that any commonwealth or state grounded on it will be a commercial republic.
true
According to Professor Smith, there appears to be a direct link between Locke's theory of property and its relation to the state, on the one hand, and on the other James Madison's statement in Federalist No. 10 that "the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property is the first object of Government."
true
That Cain, after slaying his brother Abel, feared for his life (Genesis, 4:14), Locke interprets as proof that everyone recognizes that in the natural state everyone has the right to kill a murderer.
true
According to Locke, a man's labor is his ________ property.
unquestionable
