JOHN LOCKE: TWO TREATIES

Question 1

Background on John Locke:

Answer 1

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 )

Question 2

When was the second treatise published?

Answer 2

1689 after the Glorious Revolution

Question 3

What was the Glorious Revolution?

Answer 3

When King James II was overthrown by Mary, and her dutch husband, William of Orange. It was the first ever bloodless revolution.

Question 4

Conditions imposed on Mary and William by Parliament in order for them to obtain their power:

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What does Locke think about religion?

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

According to Locke, what is the state of nature?

Answer 6

1. 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)
2. People are perfectly free; They can do whatever they want as long as it is WITHIN GOD´S REASON
3. People are perfectly equal because they are Gods creation, therefore there are no essential hierarchies

Question 7

What is the law of nature?

Answer 7

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)

Question 8

How does Locke view reason?

Answer 8

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

Question 9

What is natural freedom according to Locke?

Answer 9

The only law you have to obey is the law of nature and you obey nobodies will except for God´s

Question 10

What are bad apples of the state of nature?

Answer 10

People who do not obey the laws of the state of nature, they violate other peoples life, liberty, and property

Question 11

State of Nature: Hobbes vs. Locke:

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

In the State of War, according to Hobbes:

Answer 12

• Passions take over
• Anyone can be judge and anyone can execute

Question 13

Problems with property:

Answer 13

Taxation, American colonies, and individual pursuit of property and the ownership of it vs, the common good

Question 14

Lockes solution to the problem with property:

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Constraints on Property?

Answer 15

1. Sufficiency- You cannot take so much that others do not have enough because then you are hurting the common good
2. Spoilage- You claim so much of something that it can go to waste or spoil

Question 16

How do you get around the constraint of sufficiency?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

How do you get around the constraint of spoilage?

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Why do we need a civil society and government?

Answer 18

To protect property

Because we need an unbiased judge that can decide unbiased punishment

Because we need of power to execute punishments

Question 19

According to Locke, how are civil societies and governments made to protect our natural rights?

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

What are the two different contracts?

Answer 20

1. Original Contract- People get together and actively agree to create civil society (to live together in common)
2. Political Contract- Contract to form a political institution (government) and specifically the condition needs to protect life, liberty, and possessions

Question 21

What is content and the difference between expressed and tacit consent?

Answer 21

Consent- free people agree to form society

Expressed consent- Affirmative positive action

Tacit content - when you just go along with something

Question 22

Constitutive Power vs. Constituted Power:

Answer 22

Constitutive Power- power to create/constitute so people retain the power; the government is constituted by the people (The people)

Constituted Power- (The government)

Question 23

Lockes views on rule of law:

Answer 23

He says rule of law is what is supreme

Rule of law affirms natural law

Even government officials are subject to rule of law

Question 24

Government is divided by:

Answer 24

1. Legislative- Power to make laws
2. Executive- Execute those laws
3. Federative- International relations (war, peace, and treaties)

Question 25

What would Locke say about Absolute Monarchy?

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

In what circumstances can people revolt?

Answer 26

Tyranny and Usurpation

Question 27

What is usurpation?

Answer 27

To grab power that is not yours

Question 28

Tyranny

Answer 28

To claim power that nobody has/has been given (abusing power without actually having the power to do so)

Question 29

What does Locke find more difficult to dissolve, civil society or government?

Answer 29

Lockes finds it more difficult to dissolve civil society than government.

Question 30

What does Harret think about Locke

Answer 30

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

Question 31

How does Locke use dualism?

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

What are the differences in establishing rule of law between Machiavelli, Plato, Hobbes, and Locke?

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

Consent:

Answer 33

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.

Question 34

Differences in views of property between Locke and Plato

Answer 34

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

Question 35

What are Lockes two strands of liberal thinking?

Answer 35

1. 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
2. Individualism: He thinks people should have the liberty to do what they want. For example: with their property