John Locke: The state of nature

1. John Locke: The state of nature PHIL 1003: 2008-09

2. Thomas Hobbes Leviathan 1660

3. Hobbes’ political theory • Life in state of nature is ‘nasty, brutish and short’; • People living in danger and disorder agree to submit to a common authority: • not necessarily a king; • state religion to maintain order, limit religious and civil discord (Thirty Years’ War, English Civil War). • Problem: when must the political authority be overthrown or replaced? • Hobbes is reluctant to acknowledge that sometimes this must be done.

4. John Locke (1632-1704)

5. Biography • B. 1632, son of a lawyer; • Oxford, 1652-67 • studied chemistry, medicine, and new mechanical philosophy; • Involved in politics: • Allied w/ Lord Ashley, whom he treated for a liver abscess; • Plotted to assassinate King Charles II and his Catholic brother, the future King James II; • Exile in Holland, 1683-89; • 1689: 3 major works published.

6. Major works and themes: A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) • Argues for religious toleration; • Except for atheists, “who deny the Being of a God”: • b/c they cannot be trusted to keep their promises (e.g. in contracts); • Note similarity to Bossuet! Context: - Religious wars and persecution in England (‘Test’ Acts) and on the Continent.

7. Works, cont. Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) • Argues against innate ideas of Descartes; • Argues for the acquisition of knowledge solely through the senses: • “Intuitionism” or “Sensationalism”; • Re-opens ancient and medieval debates about essentialism versus conventionalism • theorizes naming, classification and natural kinds.

8. Works, cont. Two Treatises on Government (written 1679/80; published 1689/90) • First Treatise: • argues against traditional basis for political authority expressed in Filmer’s Patriarcha, divine right of kings; • Second Treatise: • protection of private property, life and liberty = basis for civil government.

9. Locke’s Second Treatise: government within bounds

10. Liberalism • Liberalism: • from Latin: ‘libertas’ = freedom; • Individual rights: • life, • liberty, • Property. • Private sphere • US Declaration of Independence: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson).

11. Origins and Role of Government • Traditional: “divine right of kings” • Paternal (like a father): father may intervene in children's’ lives for their own good; • Sacred--decreed by God; see Bossuet; • Symbolized by anointing the monarch’s head with holy oil in shape of a cross. • Locke’s understanding: • No divine mandate; civil gov’t =man-made • Limit to protecting citizens’ goods and lives.

12. Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Westminster Abbey, 1953

13. Locke on PA Locke is against: 1. Sacred Character of Political Authority Locke, Second Treatise, pars. 1-3 2. Paternal Character of Political Authority L, pars. 1, 52ff., 92 3. Absolute Rule L, pars. 90-4, Absolute rule = tyranny

14. What are Rights? • Magna Carta, 1215: • England, King John confronted by nobles • They demanded ‘liberties of Englishmen’ • E.g. compensation for goods seized by Crown • Examples of RIGHTS today (HK, US): • liberty to speak; • to practice a religion as one wishes (or not); • assemble or associate freely (including strike); • so long as one does not harm others.

15. Ch.1 (pars. 1-3) • No divine right of kings; • Adam did not have rights as father or from God that Filmer, et al. allege; • Impossible to assert succession from Adam—makes Filmer moot; • Magistrate’s (officer of gov’t) power: • Not father’s • Not husband’s • Not master’s over servant or slaves • I.e. not absolute!

16. State of Nature (‘SON’), ch. 2 • All are under laws of nature • Reciprocal equality • Perfect freedom • Reason: ‘no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions’ (2.6) • ‘…a state of liberty, yet…not a state of licence’ (emph. orig.; 2.6) • Each is free to act in own behalf as judge, jury and executioner (2.7).

17. Implications of 2.7 • Punishment of offender should be proportionate: ‘reparation and restraint’ (2.8) • Punishment: deterrence, retribution, reparation • Offender trespasses • ‘against the whole species’ (2.8); • ‘quits the principles of human nature’ (2.10); • becomes a ‘noxious creature’ (2.10); • May be destroyed like a wild beast (2.11) • Violates natural law and reason implanted in us by God (2.11)

18. Death penalty • Punishment must be deterrent—sufficiently severe to prevent repetition • Rational agent will be deterred—’an ill bargain to the offender…and terrify others from doing the like’; • Death penalty may be consequence • But what about our self-interest when we judge? • civil govt = better way (2.13).

19. Has SON ever existed? • Yes, in international sphere: • states are in SON w/ each other! • Yet treaties, agreements can work: • Promise b/w a Swiss and an Indian ‘in the woods of America’ (2.14); • What does ‘America’ represent? • Business can be conducted in SON! • Implications for establishment of property (ch. 5).

20. Ch.1.3: Purpose of gov’t • ‘Political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the common-wealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good.’