Analysis and Historical Context from Second Treatise of Civil Government by John Locke
COMMENTARY OF ‘SECOND TREATISE OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT’:
The previous fragment we’ve read belongs to the work of John Locke, ‘Second Treatise of Civil Government’, who published it anonymously in 1689. It is a work of political philosophy, in which Locke talks about civil society, natural rights and separation of powers. Locke was one of the first empirical philosophers and he believed that the human being was born with no knowledge, and that experience and observation were the base of all human wisdom.
In the text, Locke talks about how powers should be separated and not concentrated in the same person (the King) because he would be tempted, and in fact it was happening, to use them just to satisfy his desires. Locke also says that individuals are under no obligation to obey one another, and that we are all born free.
He continues talking about how a man has the power to do whatever it takes to preserve himself and others, but always obeying the law of nature. People have the power to overthrow the king if he is not being just with his subjects; people have absolute right to choose a governor, and it should not be all about the ‘great chain of being’, a term Locke finds ridiculous because the governor should be elected by people and not by blood. An absolute monarch is illegitimate because we are all born equals.
Locke says that there are three fundamental rights for a human being: life, liberty and property.
These ideas were extremely dangerous because they despised the royal way of governing, and that’s the reason why Locke had to publish his work anonymously. They meant a revolution in the mentalities of his time.
Locke’s work had a tremendous influence upon the Founding Fathers. Locke’s idea of men being endowed with natural rights had an enormous influence upon the American Declaration of Independence; the rights there enumerated, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, were for Locke “Life, Liberty and Property”. For Locke, the Founding Fathers
The previous fragment we’ve read belongs to the work of John Locke, ‘Second Treatise of Civil Government’, who published it anonymously in 1689. It is a work of political philosophy, in which Locke talks about civil society, natural rights and separation of powers. Locke was one of the first empirical philosophers and he believed that the human being was born with no knowledge, and that experience and observation were the base of all human wisdom.
In the text, Locke talks about how powers should be separated and not concentrated in the same person (the King) because he would be tempted, and in fact it was happening, to use them just to satisfy his desires. Locke also says that individuals are under no obligation to obey one another, and that we are all born free.
He continues talking about how a man has the power to do whatever it takes to preserve himself and others, but always obeying the law of nature. People have the power to overthrow the king if he is not being just with his subjects; people have absolute right to choose a governor, and it should not be all about the ‘great chain of being’, a term Locke finds ridiculous because the governor should be elected by people and not by blood. An absolute monarch is illegitimate because we are all born equals.
Locke says that there are three fundamental rights for a human being: life, liberty and property.
These ideas were extremely dangerous because they despised the royal way of governing, and that’s the reason why Locke had to publish his work anonymously. They meant a revolution in the mentalities of his time.
Locke’s work had a tremendous influence upon the Founding Fathers. Locke’s idea of men being endowed with natural rights had an enormous influence upon the American Declaration of Independence; the rights there enumerated, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, were for Locke “Life, Liberty and Property”. For Locke, the Founding Fathers