Political Science, Locke, UPSC, CBSE/UGC NET

1. John Locke -1632 to 1704
Liberalism as a political creed began with him…no
liberals before Locke there were many socialists before
Marx
Offered a theory which combined…Constitutionalism
(impact of Shaftsbury), Stability, Freedom, Consent,
Property, Tolerance (impact of Shaftsbury)…western
democracies development [England, America, France &
Holland]

2. Neither Whig
nor defended
Glorious
revolution-
Laslett
An apologist
and a theorist
of bourgeois
society-
Macpherson
A
Revolutionary-
Ashcraft
Champion
of
Individuality
Collectivist

3. Locke and the Glorious Revolution
• Locke was seen as the apostle of the revolution and
the second treatise as a justification for revolution
• Two treatises contain radical and moderate ideas
• Two treatises espoused and defended freedom,
consent and property as cardinal principles of
legitimate political power

4. • State of Nature
– NOT gloomy and pessimistic (≠ Hobbes)
– Perfect equality and freedom between individuals regulated by the laws of
nature
– Moral state
– Human beings social & pacific…but disputes
– Peace was not secure…because of corrupt and vicious men
– Lacked 3 important wants
• Established law
• Indifferent judge
• Executive to enforce just decisions
• Need for civil society
•To protect, preserve and enlarge freedom
• Stages: State of Nature-Civil society with vibrant economy- Government…

5. • GOVERNMENT
– No to divine origin of state/divine rights of kings
– Government (Fiduciary power- relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary)…people supreme
power
– Within Govt. legislative supreme
– Government could not deprive individuals material possessions (Property)…Property prior to
government
– Separation of legislative and executive (Pre-empting Montesquieu)…3rd wing federative power for
external relations
– Realized the impossibility of unanimity in every action…so majority rule…
 5 occasions to change/dissolve Govt.
– Arbitrary will in the place of laws
– Hindrance to legislature
– Elections altered without consent
– Delivery of people into the subjection of foreign power
– Laws could not be executed
Right of disobedience could be exercised by majority and not by one person or a small group
POLITICAL POWER
– Origin of political power WITHOUT abandoning religious foundations…
– viewed absolute political power illegitimate…limited sovereignty (≠ Filmer, ≠ Hobbes)…
– Political power as trust…

6. Consent political obligation
• 2nd treatise explains
– Direct consent
– Tacit consent
– Not committed to unconditional obligation

7. • Freedom
– Self preservation and preservation of others
– Individual derived their natural rights to life, liberty and
estate (property)
– Liberty within the limits of natural laws
– Human beings also have natural duties
– natural laws were those reason dictated
– Religious toleration…pluralism
– Against wasting, squandering, spoiling or destroying

8. • Parental and Patriarchal Authority
– Parental authority natural…but limited,conditional
– Parents (Mother = Father) need honours
– Right to inheritance…for children’s survival
– Wife has liberty but not =Husband…
– Women contributor to civic culture…but Locke not
expanded political activity for them

9. • Criticism
– Accepted inequality – with and those without property…
• Refutation
– Property with moral dimension

10. • Conclusion
– First exponent of the doctrine of civil society
– Faith in the ordinary man-so democratic representation
• Other concepts:
opposed colonization…because depletion of good people & fear of
competition…
• Before Locke…problem of scarcity…Plato to Hobbes period
• Admirations:
 Guide and spiritual father of 18th century enlightenment
 One of the founders of modern empiricism
 Inspiration for early feminists…because…belief in supremacy of
reason, rejection of patriarchy and political absolutism, importance
of nurture as opposed to nature

11. • Two Treatises was a response to the political situation as it
existed in England. The arguments of the two treatises are
continuous and that the whole constitutes a justification of
the Glorious Revolution, which brought the Protestant William
III and Mary II to the throne
• The first treatise
The first treatise was aimed squarely at the work of another 17th-
century political theorist, Sir Robert Filmer,
whose Patriarcha (1680, though probably written in the 1630s)
defended the theory of divine right of kings: the authority of
every king is divinely sanctioned
• Locke claims that Filmer’s doctrine - The right to rule by descent
-defies “common sense.”

12. • The second treatise
– Locke’s importance as a political philosopher lies in the argument of the
second treatise.
Political Power
Begins by defining political power
Locke’s definition of political power has an immediate moral dimension. It is
a “right” of making laws and enforcing them for “the public good.” Power for
Locke never simply means “capacity” but always “morally sanctioned
capacity.”
Property
his notion of property, which is of central importance to his political theory
property in his own person- but one can acquire property beyond one’s own
body through labour-this view of Locke forerunner of the labour theory of
value [to utilize the body as a tool to labour/creation we need
ability/knowledge/wisdom…however the ability/knowledge/wisdom are
largely construction of society…a hierarchical social order will not support
all to take benefits of their own body…so reservation policy may help to
achieve the same…nevertheless…individuals who are able to exercise
ability/knowledge/wisdom should voluntarily or legally excluded from such
policy]

13. • The second treatise
Locke returns to political society in Chapter VIII of the second treatise.
Organization of government
In the community created by the social contract, the will of the
majority should prevail, subject to the law of nature.
there should be a division of legislative, executive, and judicial powers.
The legislature may, with the agreement of the majority, impose such
taxes as are required to fulfill the ends of the state

14. • Locke’s writings were not confined to political philosophy and epistemology. Some Thoughts
Concerning Education (1693), for example, remains a standard source in the philosophy of
education.
– Superiority of private tutoring for the education of young
gentlemen
– Opposed the scholastic method and harsh discipline of the
schools, favored an all-round, wholesome, common-sense
education
– Locke holds that knowledge is entirely the product of experience,
for the mind at birth is an "empty tablet“(“tabula rasa”)
– Native propensities
– Relation between teacher and pupil-critic, disciplinarian, a friend

15. • Moral contractualism is the view that the rightness and wrongness
of our conduct is somehow to be understood in terms of some kind
of actual or counterfactual agreement. This must be distinguished
from political contractualism, which adduces agreements in order
to account for the justice or authority or legitimacy of political
institutions or decisions. Versions of contractualism differ in terms
of how they specify the agreements. The two main versions of
contractualism are Hobbesian contractualism (sometimes called
“contractarianism”), which is based on the idea of a self-interested
bargain or contract between self-interested individuals for the sake
of individual gain, and Kantian contractualism, which is based on
the idea of a morally constrained agreement among individuals
who regard themselves and one another as free and equal
persons warranting moral respect. This article will say something
about the historical sources of contractualism, but will focus
primarily on recent discussions.
• Source: http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-
9780195396577/obo-9780195396577-0166.xml

16. Source:
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-
Locke#ref1023433
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27532614.p
df

17. Check yourself
1. Filmer and not Hobbes was the main antagonist of Locke-
Comment
2. Locke’s arguments were politically radical, but far being
secular-Do you agree?
3. American slogan “No taxes without representation” was
Lockean spirit - how?