1. Modern Political thought
Term A – Week 6

2. What is to be done… Background
The question of the legitimacy of political power
State of nature
State of war
Right to property
Conclusions and questions
also you can find additional lecture notes on personal website at:

4. Background John Locke (1632-1704)
Philosopher, Physician, and sometimes political actor
Fled to the Netherlands and returned as a supporter of Glorious Revolution
Two Treatises on Government
Responding to Sir Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes
Influenced by Lord Shaftsbury and Glorious Revolution

6. The legitimacy of political power
Rejection of the divine right of kings
No ruler today could derive authority from Adam’s paternal rights
If political power is to be more than force and violence, and men more than beasts…
Another basis for the authority of political power is needed
What is political power?
Magistrate/Subject – rather than Father/Child; Master/Servant; Husband/Wife; Lord/Slave
“Right of making laws with penalties of death and consequently all lesser penalties, for the regulation and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good.”

8. State of Nature 1
Perfect freedom to order our actions and dispose of our possession and persons
Equality of power and jurisdiction
Natural rights:
Life
Liberty
Property
Natural obligations of justice/charity
What is the state of nature?
State of grace; thought experiment; proto-anthropology?

9. State of Nature 2 Liberty is not license!
Our freedom is bound by natural law
Not free to destroy ourselves
Law of Nature
Obliges everyone
Reason is the law
Being all equal, no one should harm another’s rights
Law of nature wills peace and preservation of mankind
Execution of the law falls to every man

10. State of Nature 3
The only way we can legitimately come under the power of another is if we transgress the natural law
Punishment is reasonable and dependent upon severity of transgression
By breaking the law of nature we put ourselves outside the law of reason/common equity – become dangerous to everyone
Everyone has right to punish transgression to preserve the natural law
Limits of natural law  each “man” acts as his own judge
Better than absolute monarch where one acts as judge for all
Inconvenience gves us reason to leave the state of nature
Did/does the state of nature actually exist?

12. State of War
State of destruction and enmity declared by word or action
Law of nature allows us to harm/kill those who declare war upon us
Kill them as lion, wolf, noxious beasts
Putting another under absolute power is an act of war – threatens one’s life, as compelling one’s will without consent risks harm, slavery and death
State of nature  state of war
Living in accord with law but authority to judge shared in absence of common superior
Declared intention to use force upon another without common superior given authority creates a state of war
War in state of nature persists until aggressor offers peace and repairs wrongs done
State of war can exist within civil state too!
Threat of war provides further reason to leave the state of nature  Civil state creates an authority with power to prevent violations and grant relief of injury

14. Right to Property
Right to preservation but the world given to all in common, so how do we have a right to property?
Earth and capacity to make effective use of it both given by God
Right to our own body/labour, so by mixing our labour with nature we gain right to property
Proviso: enough and as good left for others
Does not depend upon consent!
Land acquired the same way
Emergence of compacts to distribute land and money to overcome limits of spoilage
State of nature as a kind of anthropological story

15. Questions and next steps…
What role does Reason plan in Locke’s work?
How is progress possible in Locke’s account?
Why is Locke less pessimistic about human nature than Hobbes?
Looking from the state of nature, with its attendant rights and laws, to the formation of legitimate government based on consent  opposition to tyranny and the justification of rebellion