JOHN LOCKE: TWO TREATIES Flashcards
Background on John Locke:
Born: 1632 (He was born during Hobbes and during the English Civil War)
Died: 1704
Economy: Grew up fairly privileged, his father owned land and a factory
Religion: Very Religious; Father was protestant and fought against the king in the English Civil War. Locke is AGAINST Catholicism and English royalism
Education: Went to Oxford University
Occupations: Physician for Earl of Shaftesbury and worked at his home as his doctor and even saved his life even though he had no prior medical experience
Earlier Positions: Earlier in his life he was fairly conservative and favored a strong authoritarian government like Hobbes ( he was really influenced by Hobbes thinking )
When was the second treatise published?
1689 after the Glorious Revolution
What was the Glorious Revolution?
When King James II was overthrown by Mary, and her dutch husband, William of Orange. It was the first ever bloodless revolution.
Conditions imposed on Mary and William by Parliament in order for them to obtain their power:
They had to give up their absolute powers.
Conditions:
- All laws must be approved by Parliament (King cannot issue any law that he wants, it must be approved by Parliament)
- No Trials without approval
- Trials of Juries, instead of king simply decides
What does Locke think about religion?
- Religion is the foundation and leads to morality and politics
- He believes all individuals should believe and study God and says that the study of God is every man’s duty and individuals must believe in God in order to be rational and belong into political society, if they do not then they are not rational
- Religion/believing in God is what differentiates a man between an animal and it is only on a base of religion that a man has morality
According to Locke, what is the state of nature?
- Everyone can be moral because we are God´s creation (Locke believes morality is possible because we are God´s creation, Hobbes thinks there is no morality)
- People are perfectly free; They can do whatever they want as long as it is WITHIN GOD´S REASON
- People are perfectly equal because they are Gods creation, therefore there are no essential hierarchies
What is the law of nature?
Don´t harm anyones life, liberty, and possessions and protect your own. If you do, you will be punished.
(only one compared to 13 from Hobbes)
How does Locke view reason?
Locke sees reason as something given by God and has a moral quality. If we are perfectly rational as God has allowed us to be, then we will continue to respect this law of nature
Reason isn’t just a tool but also a gift that God has endowed us with
Intrinsically valuable not just instrumentally valuable like how Hobbes sees it
What is natural freedom according to Locke?
The only law you have to obey is the law of nature and you obey nobodies will except for God´s
What are bad apples of the state of nature?
People who do not obey the laws of the state of nature, they violate other peoples life, liberty, and property
State of Nature: Hobbes vs. Locke:
For Hobbes, the state of nature and state of war are the same but to Locke they are not the same because generally, people are rational and they obey the law of nature, however occasionally you will have these transgressions which in that case you are in a state of war.
In the State of War, according to Hobbes:
- Passions take over
- Anyone can be judge and anyone can execute
Problems with property:
Taxation, American colonies, and individual pursuit of property and the ownership of it vs, the common good
Lockes solution to the problem with property:
Private Property- having the right to exclude other people from access of your property
Private property becomes yours when your labor is mixed into it
Locke states that the government or anyone cannot take your private property away
Constraints on Property?
- Sufficiency- You cannot take so much that others do not have enough because then you are hurting the common good
- Spoilage- You claim so much of something that it can go to waste or spoil
How do you get around the constraint of sufficiency?
Increase the common stock- You are allowed to take things even if people don´t have enough as long as you are increasing others benefits
How do you get around the constraint of spoilage?
Money- Exchanging or having a third form of currency that helps get around the spoilage constraint. You can trade things for money because money won’t go bad.
Why do we need a civil society and government?
To protect property
Because we need an unbiased judge that can decide unbiased punishment
Because we need of power to execute punishments
According to Locke, how are civil societies and governments made to protect our natural rights?
The government we create doesn’t give us what we didn’t have before, the government affirms, protects and secures the rights we already have in the state of nature.
What are the two different contracts?
- Original Contract- People get together and actively agree to create civil society (to live together in common)
- Political Contract- Contract to form a political institution (government) and specifically the condition needs to protect life, liberty, and possessions
What is content and the difference between expressed and tacit consent?
Consent- free people agree to form society
Expressed consent- Affirmative positive action
Tacit content - when you just go along with something
Constitutive Power vs. Constituted Power:
Constitutive Power- power to create/constitute so people retain the power; the government is constituted by the people (The people)
Constituted Power- (The government)
Lockes views on rule of law:
He says rule of law is what is supreme
Rule of law affirms natural law
Even government officials are subject to rule of law
Government is divided by:
- Legislative- Power to make laws
- Executive- Execute those laws
- Federative- International relations (war, peace, and treaties)
What would Locke say about Absolute Monarchy?
He is not opposed to monarchy in general as the monarch is constrained to rule of law.
He would be opposed to an absolute monarch who is not constrained to rule of law. He thinks there must be limitations imposed by rule of law and natural law.
In what circumstances can people revolt?
Tyranny and Usurpation
What is usurpation?
To grab power that is not yours
Tyranny
To claim power that nobody has/has been given (abusing power without actually having the power to do so)
What does Locke find more difficult to dissolve, civil society or government?
Lockes finds it more difficult to dissolve civil society than government.
What does Harret think about Locke
Harret believes Locke went wrong in the assumptions he made about human nature and rationality
Rationality can be interpreted in many different ways but Locke is imposing only one understanding of rationality, meaning there has been productive labor and if it is not this then it is irrational.
For Locke, there are no possibilities of rationality that aren’t valued.
Locke does not impose any other forms of rationality that are not of use value and he imposes that the British way is the only possible way and any other way is seen as inferior
How does Locke use dualism?
Locke uses a certain dualistic thinking, where if you are rational then you are like him, and if you’re not rational then you are not like him. It’s either or, there is no possibility that there are other ways of being.
Arguably this is the struggle we still have because we still retain this dualistic thinking. We still live in this dualistic society where recognition by a state demands property to be a certain way.
What are the differences in establishing rule of law between Machiavelli, Plato, Hobbes, and Locke?
Plato: thinks rule should come from the philosopher king
Machiavelli: thinks rule should come from the prince
Hobbes: thinks rule should come from the Leviathan
Locke: gives us the understanding that people (who are subject to the law) have a hand in creating the laws that they are subject to.
Consent:
With Locke is that we get a full sense of consent, what consent is, and why it is important for political thought. With that follows rebellion, revolution, that isn’t just justified but also inst obligatory that the government isn’t following the laws.
Differences in views of property between Locke and Plato
Plato says guardians cannot have property because it will make them put their self interest before their citizens
Locke says the accumulation of property is moral because you are improving the common stock
What are Lockes two strands of liberal thinking?
- Common Good: He has a commitment to the common good and this comes out strongly with his religious language and the idea that poverty itself is a private thing and is supposed to justify the common good
- Individualism: He thinks people should have the liberty to do what they want. For example: with their property
