Hobbes argued that all humans are by nature equal in faculties of body and mind (i.e., no natural inequalities are so great as to give anyone a "claim" to an exclusive "benefit"). From this equality and other causes in human nature, everyone is naturally willing to fight one another: so that "during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called warre; and such a warre as is of every man against every man". In this state every person has a natural right or liberty to do anything one thinks necessary for preserving one's own life; and life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"

1. Locke on the State of Nature,
Property, and the State

2. History
• Throughout the 17th century, was the overriding
constitutional struggle within English politics.
• It had already instigated the wrenching civil war
that had culminated in the execution of Charles I
in 1649.
• At that time Locke was attending a nearby school.
His education continued at Oxford University,
where he studied medicine and eventually met
his famous patient, the Earl of Shaftesbury.

3. History
• At that time Locke was attending a nearby school.
His education continued at Oxford University,
where he studied medicine and eventually met
his famous patient, the Earl of Shaftesbury.
• Place Locke at the center of the great political
events of his day as the struggle between the
King and Parliament continued.
• Through these inspirations Locke began to write
his famous treatises on government.

4. Histroy
• Second Treatise is written, we believe, just before
the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688. That revolution
was again against perceived growing regal
encroachment. Locke’s treatise is a defense of
parliamentary supremacy and constitutional
government.
• Indeed, it is a text intended certainly in part as a
practical guide, addressed to the average
Englishman.

5. History
• The first was targeted at Robert Filmer who had
argued in that the divine right of kings and the
absolute authority of the monarch derived from
the principles of patriarchy found in the family
and established in the story of Genesis.
• Locked emphasizes that each human being is
born into the world with the same authority that
Adam had—namely authority over his own
person and over his children until they are old
enough to become responsible for themselves.

6. History
It having been shown in the foregoing discourse
1. That Adam had not, either by natural right of fatherhood, or by positive donation
from God, any such authority over his children, or dominion over the world, as is
pretended:
2. That if he had, his heirs, yet, had no right to it:
3. That if his heirs had, there being no law of nature nor positive law of God that
determines which is the right heir in all cases that may arise, the right of
succession, and consequently of bearing rule, could not have been certainly
determined:
4. That if even that had been determined, yet the knowledge of which is the eldest
line of Adam's posterity, being so long since utterly lost, that in the races of
mankind and families of the world, there remains not to one above another, the
least pretence to be the eldest house, and to have the right of inheritance:

7. Natural Law
• Natural Law: laws governing human social
relations are facts about nature, not human-
made conventions.
• Locke is a natural law theorist.
• The state of nature, naturally transitions into a
civil commonwealth.

8. State of Nature
• Human beings are more broadly oriented
toward the good.
• Emphasizes the degree to which trust can be
reliably placed in others.
• Locke recognizes the impossibility of basing
government on simple self-interest. Locke
used the term compact to describe the urge in
human beings to form society.

9. Civil Commonwealth
• Men do not have to agree to form a community because
they already find themselves bounded up with one another.
• They have only to form a government, to agree on the
mode by which they are to govern themselves collectively.
• Through his account of genesis of civil society,
representation of Hobbes’ Leviathan—an absolute ruler
who stands above the contracting parties as the only
means of compelling their fidelity to the agreement.
• Transfer of liberty that each enjoyed in the state of nature
and to the state of civil society whereby the same
legislative function that each performed individually is now
enacted collectively.

10. Parts of the Commonwealth
• Locke divides the civil commonwealth or
government into three parts
– Legislature
– Executive
– Federative
These are separate entities that perform certain
tasks

11. Parts of the Commonwealth
• The legislature has the power to formulate
laws to run the government. It needs to be in
session often but not continuously. It can be
an individual or a body of individuals.
• The executive has the power to implement the
laws formulated by the legislature.
• The federative deals with the relations the
civil commonwealth has with the other states.

12. Tyranny
• According to Locke “tyranny is the exercise of
power beyond right”
• Locke notes that any executive body--not just a
monarchy--that ceases to function for the benefit
of the people is a tyranny. He then points out
factors that limit the people from hastily
opposing the government.
• These include: sanctity of the executive; faith that
laws will prevent necessity of for ce; and the fear
that a small group of individuals will never
overthrow powerful leaders with success.

13. Desolation of Government
• Locke believes that the system of the government
is such that people cannot rise against it.
• Instead of overthrowing the government, Locke
insists that the system of the state provides the
people the right to change their legislature and
executive.
• When the government is dissolved, the people
are free to reform the legislative in order to re-
create a civil state that works in their best
interest.

14. Consent
• The foundational concept of political
liberalism is consent: the difference between
power and authority is based upon consent.
No person or group has authority over any
other person or group without that latter’s
consent.
• Consent cannot be arbitrary or idiosyncratic:
consent must be informed by reasonableness.