1. John Locke and Sigmund Freud
Power and happiness
John Locke and Sigmund Freud

2. Unit 2: Power as Domination
What is power in the absence of direct, open conflict? Domination.
Domination: supremacy or preeminence by one person or group over another person or group.
Domination: the foreclosure of conflict so as to maintain a particular relationship or social structure.
Is domination always “bad”?

3. John Locke (1632-1704) Enlightenment Political Theorist
Hobbes had Galileo, Locke had Newton
Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669)
A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
Second Treatise of Government (1689)
Critic of absolute monarchies
1683: Fled to the Netherlands
1688: Glorious Revolution established constitutional monarchy in England

4. Locke in the American Context
Second Treatise
Declaration of Independence
“Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his consent” (52).
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
“The reason why men enter into society, is the preservation of their property; and the end why these [choose] and authorize legislative, is, that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all members of the society, to limit the power, and moderate the dominion, of every part and will of the society…. [W]henever the legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience” (111).
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

5. For Locke, excessive, concentrated, and unrestrained power is the central problem of all regimes: How does one build a state that will respect the natural rights of men?

6. “The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into common-wealths and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property” (66).
How is this a different understanding of legitimate government than that theorized by Hobbes?

7. WHAT IS POWER TO LOCKE?
“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” (8).
Similar/different than Hobbes?
How is this ‘power as domination’? Domination by who?
Location, source, purpose, social effects, limits, resistance?

8. Domination of individuals by government solves the problems of the state of nature. How can such domination be legitimate?
Collective: Derived from individual consent, resides with ‘the people.’
Resource: Ensures stability, secures individual rights.
Threat: Must be divided, monitored, and managed.
Morality: Constrained by individual rights, law of nature.
governing is Inherently violent: Power/punishment must be proportional to problem/crime.

9. Review: Key Concepts in Locke’s second treatise
The State of Nature: How is the Lockean state of nature different than the Hobbesian?
Natural Rights: Life, Property (individualism), punishment
Law of Nature: Respect of other’s lives and property
The Social Contract: consent to be governed in return for protection of life and property
Consent: Tacit, not explicit
Tyranny: government that abrogates natural rights
Revolution: the right of society to punish unjust rulers
Liberty/happiness: the freedom to use reason to guide your life – non-interference and pursuit

10. Relationship between Power and happiness
Happiness without government is inconsistent due to the “inconveniences” in the state of nature.
The Power of government, if properly applied and limited, can establish the conditions for a consistently happy life.
If government’s power is not contributing to our happiness, it is illegitimate and may be rightfully resisted.
What is “Happiness”?

11. Defining Happiness Freedom: When our will is undetermined.
"The necessity of pursuing happiness [is] the foundation of liberty.  As therefore the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty. The stronger ties we have to an unalterable pursuit of happiness in general, which is our greatest good, and which, as such, our desires always follow, the more are we free from any necessary determination of our will to any particular action..." 
Freedom: When our will is undetermined.
“True and solid happiness”: the liberty to Care for ourselves according to our most fundamental desires.
We are happy when our will is determined solely by our desire to care for ourselves
Legitimate power shields you from interference

12. What is the role of “happiness” in domination?
Century of the self: Happiness Machines

13. Locke VS Freud/Bernays
How is consumerism arguably a form of domination?
How does Locke’s theory of government relate to the emergence of consumerism?
Think about how the individual is conceptualized by Locke and Freud/Bernays. How might this change our definition of power?