John Locke 1632-1704

1. John Locke 1632-1704

2. Biography • John Locke was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. • Locke's was a government official who collected information about trade and colonies, economic writer, opposition political activist • He was a revolutionary whose cause ultimately triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when Britain invited William of Orange (Netherlands) to take the British throne from James II.

3. Two Treatises of Government • Locke defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch. • People have rights, i.e. life, liberty, and property. These are independent of the laws of a particular society.

4. Of the State of Nature • In a state of nature men are free. They are free to dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature. • Men are equal, no one has more power than any other unless God should set some one person above another and give to him the right to rule. • Although men have liberty they cannot destroy either himself or any creature in his possession. • You cannot do harm to any other person’s life, health, liberty, or possessions. • These are natural laws and natural rights.

5. Of the Ends of Political Society and Government • Men are willing to give up some freedom and to join in the society of others who are already united, or have the mind to unite, for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberty, and property.

6. Of the Dissolution of Government • Men enter into a society to protect property. • If legislators fail to do this they put themselves in a state of war with the people. • The people have the right to resume their original liberty, and by the establishment of a new assembly to provide for their own safety and security. • This holds true for the executive power. If he makes his own will the law of society, he frees the people from the duty of obeying him.