John Locke's social contract theory

1. John Locke & the
State of Nature
A Founding
Philosophy

2. Natural Rights
 John Locke - English
Philosopher (1632-
1704)
 Most important
influence on the
Founders of U.S.
 His ideas shaped the
Dec. of Ind.,
Constitution, Bill of
Rights

3. What would life be like
without government?
 Locke said this would be a
“State of Nature.”
 Not a condition where people
live in the wilderness
 Situation where there is no
power acting as a government

4. Helps us answer:
 What is human nature?
 What is the purpose of gov’t.
 How do people get the right to
govern?
 How should a gov’t be organized?
 What kinds of gov’t are good/bad
and should be supported/resisted?

5. Critical
Thinking
Exercise
What would Locke
say?

6. Question #1
 Locke felt that there were rules in a
state of nature that people would
follow through their own conscience
 But not all humans are
reasonable/good
 There might be disagreement about
the “laws of nature”
 There would be no gov’t because
gov’t cannot exist until it’s created

7. Question # 2
 No one would have the right to
govern you - you would have no
right to govern someone else
 Someone gets the right to
govern only through consent of
others
 If people have not consented,
there is no legitimate gov’t.

8. Question 3
 Locke believed in natural rights
- 3 basics that you could defend
if threatened
 Life
 Liberty
 Property

9. Question 4
 Locke believed people were
basically good, but self-
interested
 He believed that the
stronger/smarter would try
to take away the natural
rights of the weak

10. Question 5
 Weaker/less sophisticated
would protect themselves by
joining together against the
strong

11. Question 6
 Peoples rights would be very
insecure
 There would be no laws that
people agreed on
 There would be no
government to enforce the
laws that there were

12. Recapping our natural
rights…
 According to Locke:
Life
Liberty
Property
Sound familiar????

13. “The sacred rights of mankind
are written, as with a sun beam
in the whole volume of human
nature, by the Hand of the
Divinity itself, and can never be
erased or obscured by mortal
power.”
Alexander Hamilton

14. The Social Contract
 Locke believed that in a state of
nature your rights were always
in jeopardy
 In order to secure rights for all,
we enter into what Locked
called the social contract
 We agree to create and live
under a gov’t with the power to
make and enforce laws

15.  We give up our right to do
anything we please
 We gain the protection and
security of our natural rights
 Purpose of gov’t is to protect
those rights that the individual
cannot protect in the state of
nature.