Hobbes and John Locke

Jahanzeb Taj

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 Recurring Questions

 THOMAS HOBBES
 Hobbes and Bodin are said to be the proponents of the theory of
Absolutism. Do you agree? Give reasons.(2003)
 "Life in state of nature was nasty, poor, brutish and
short."(Hobbes)(2008)
 Discuss Locke and Hobbes “ perspective on the “ state of
Nature”(2011)
 Critically examine the concepts of Hobbes and Locke about `Social
Contract (2015)

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 Recurring Questions
 JOAN LOCKE
 Right to revolt against the established government by Locke, if the
former violates people’s trust, is antithetic, in some respects, to the
social contract theories of other philosophers. Analyze the statement
and explain in detail.(2000)
 Examine the nature of the contract expounded by Locke revolving in
the establishment of the Civil Society(2004)

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 Thomas Hobbes
 5th April 1588 , born in Wiltshire England . Thomas Hobbes was
excellent in classical languages
 He went to Magdalene Hall University in Oxford for further studies
 He started tutoring a person from royal family, thus he got related with
the structures of power and government
 He took asylum in France during English civil war (1642-1651) . In 1666,
the House of Commons ordered investigation of Leviathan for atheist
tendencies . Hobbes being accused of atheism couldn’t publish his work
on human conduct anymore in England
 Hobbes breathe his last on December 4th 1679

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 Thomas Hobbes
 This is Hobbes’s first published philosophical work (1640)
 The elements of law, nature and politics
 Hobbes has defined sovereignty in it , which remains central to all of his
political work
 HOBBES’s CONTRIBUTION
 De Cive ("On the citizen"), is Thomas Hobbes's first work dealing with
human knowledge published in 1642 in Latin
 This work comprises three parts: Libertas (liberty), Imperium
(dominion), and Religio (religion)
 Leviathan or The Matter, Form and Power of a Common Wealth
Ecclesiastical and Civil ( Published in 1651)
 The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government
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 Hobbes’s main concern is with the problem of social and political order
 Let’s begin with Hobbes’s concept of ‘state of nature’:
 In the "natural" condition human beings lack government and are prone to
conflicts
 Humans are meant to live in anarchy
 Hobbes believes that human judgement is unreliable since it is made on
the basis of self interests
 Social Contract Theory:
 An 'occurrence' in which individuals came together and cede some of
their individual rights leading to the establishment of a state
 Absolute Monarch: A complete adherence of citizens to the sovereign
body necessary for a peaceful environment . A government with
ultimate powers
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 “Wickedness of bad men compels good men to have recourse for their
own protection, to the virtues of war which are violence and fraud”
 War:
 Every individual is insecure similarly every sovereign group is insecure
leading to conflicts
 Civil war resulted from disagreements in the philosophical foundations of
political knowledge
 Without an international sovereign, the international system under this
logic is in a permanent state of nature and war i.e. it is anarchic
 Bellum omnium contra omnes (The condition of man is a condition of war
of everyone against everyone)

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 Contradiction of Hobbes ideals with modern Democracy:
 Similar to Hobbes’s view states are sovereign today but contrarily not
under an autocracy
 Democracy gives public political liberty but Hobbes perceived it as a
threat to stability

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 State of Nature
 The pure state of nature, or "the natural condition of mankind", was
described by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan and his earlier work De Cive
 Hobbes argued that natural inequalities between humans are not so
great as to give anyone clear superiority; and thus all must live in
constant fear of loss or violence; so that "during the time men live
without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that
condition which is called warre; and such a warre as is of every man
against every man“
 In this state, every person has a natural right to do anything one thinks
necessary for preserving one's own life, and life is "solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short" (Leviathan, Chapters XIII–XIV)

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 State of Nature
 For Hobbes, the state of nature is characterized by the “war of every man
against every man,” a constant and violent condition of competition in
which each individual has a natural right to everything, regardless of the
interests of others
 The only laws that exist in the state of nature (the laws of nature) are not
covenants forged between people but principles based on self-
preservation
 What Hobbes calls the first law of nature, for instance, is that every man
ought to endeavor peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when
he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of
war

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 State of Nature
 In the absence of a higher authority to adjudicate disputes, everyone fears
and mistrusts everyone else, and there can be no justice, commerce, or
culture
 That unsustainable condition comes to an end when individuals agree to
relinquish their natural rights to everything and to transfer their self-
sovereignty to a higher civil authority, or Leviathan
 For Hobbes, the authority of the sovereign is absolute, in the sense that no
authority is above the sovereign and that its will is law
 That, however, does not mean that the power of the sovereign is all-
encompassing: subjects remain free to act as they please in cases in which
the sovereign is silent (in other words, when the law does not address the
action concerned.
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 State of Nature
 The social contract allows individuals to leave the state of nature and enter
civil society, but the former remains a threat and returns as soon as
governmental power collapses. Because the power of Leviathan is
uncontested, however, its collapse is very unlikely and occurs only when it is
no longer able to protect its subjects.

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 State of Nature
 Hobbes described this natural condition with the Latin phrase (bellum
omnium contra omnes) meaning (war of all against all), in De Cive
 Within the state of nature, there is neither personal property nor injustice
since there is no law, except for certain natural precepts discovered by reason
("laws of nature"):
 The first of which is "that every man ought to endeavor peace, as far as he
has hope of obtaining it" and
 The second is "that a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as
for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this
right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men
as he would allow other men against himself"

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 State of Nature
 From here, Hobbes develops the way out of the state of nature into political
society and government by mutual contracts

 According to Hobbes, the state of nature exists at all times among

independent countries, over whom there is no law except for those same
precepts or laws of nature
 His view of the state of nature helped to serve as a basis for theories of
international law and relations and even some theories about domestic
relations

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 SOCIAL CONTRACT OF HOBBES

 ’ Theory of Social Contract first time appeared in Leviathan in 1651 during

the civil war in Britain
 According to Hobbes, prior to social contract man lives in state of nature;
chaotic conditions of constant fear. Man has natural desire for security and
order. For this, they surrender their freedom and rights to some authority
by a contract who must command obedience
 This lead to emergence of monarchy as mightiest authority to protect and
preserve their lives and property. Moral obligations are placed on sovereign
and he will be bound by natural law

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 Hobbes is a supporter of absolutism. He upheld the principle of might is right.
“Law is dependent upon the sanction of the sovereign and the Government
without sword are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all” -
Hobbes

 Hobbes says humans are necessarily and exclusively self-interested

 All men pursue only what they perceive to be in their own individually
considered best interests
 Men are drawn to that which they desire and repelled by that to which they
are averse. They are reasonable and can pursue their desire efficiently. They
ought to be willing to submit themselves to political authority.
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 Hobbes impels subjects to surrender all their rights and vest all liberties
in the sovereign for preservation of peace, life and prosperity of the
subjects
 It is in this way the natural law became a moral guide or directive to the
sovereign for preservation of the natural rights of the subjects
 All real law is civil law, the laws commanded and enforced by the
sovereign and are brought into the world for nothing else but to limit the
natural liberty of particular men, in such a manner, as they might not hurt
but to assist one another and join against a common enemy
 Hence, Individualism, materialism, utilitarianism and absolutions are inter-
woven in the theory of Hobbes.

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 HOBBES FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

 Hobbes in actual talked about three forms of government totally different from each
other
 Monarchy, Aristocracy and democracy are his main concern in specifically talking about
the forms of government
 He classified and explained the concept of three forms of government in a way that
when all the powers are vested in a man by the state he is said to be monarchic but at
the same time when the powers are vested in assembly it is said to be democratic form
of government at that point of time
 And if specifically talks about power given to few persons it would be called as
Aristocratic form of government
 He specifically talked about three forms of government and added no space for any
further form of government; that he doesn’t believe in mixed form of government.

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 MONARCHY

 The preference he gave more was on the Monarchic government calling it

as a best form of government
 Apart from Monarchy, He rather believed in that particular form of
government which could bring up the peace and security in the country
 In his explanation of the forms of government he rather was much against
the division of the powers
 He believed the only division of the power between the Kings, Lords, and
commons was responsible for civil war and yet a source of destruction it
was

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 MONARCHY

 According to him, Monarchy guarantees stability and uniformity which

actually helps in preventing from falling into any chaotic situation in any
type of country having this particular form of government
 Whereas, he supported Monarchy with a fact that in a monarchic form of
government the competition for the seat, offices and posts is less as
compared to aristocracy and that of democracy
 The major advantage he came up with was that the monarchs of any
country have the same interests as that of the people

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 LEVIATHAN
Leviathan was written by Thomas Hobbes in 1651
 It is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social
contract theory
 Written during the English Civil War, Leviathan argues that civil peace and
social unity are best achieved by the establishment of a commonwealth
through social contract
 Hobbes’s ideal commonwealth is ruled by a sovereign power and granted
absolute authority to ensure the common defense.

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 Commonwealth
 In his introduction, Hobbes describes this commonwealth as an "artificial
person" and as a body politic that mimics the human body
 The first edition of Leviathan, which Hobbes helped design, portrays the
commonwealth as a gigantic human form built out of the bodies of its
citizens, the sovereign as its head
 Hobbes calls this figure the "Leviathan," a word derived from the Hebrew
for "sea monster" and the name of a monstrous sea creature appearing in
the Bible; the image constitutes the definitive metaphor for Hobbes's
perfect government
 His text attempts to prove the necessity of the Leviathan for preserving
peace and preventing civil war
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 Commonwealth
 Book I of Leviathan contains the philosophical framework for the entire text,
while the remaining books simply extend and elaborate the arguments
presented in the initial chapters
 Hobbes describes human psychology without any reference to greatest
good, which he considers superfluous and given the variability of human
desires, there could be no such thing
 Book 2 of Leviathan details the process of standing the Leviathan, outlines
the rights of sovereigns and subjects, and imagines the civil mechanics of the
commonwealth
 Natural inclinations of men toward power impels them to break contracts,
thus the basic social contract of the commonwealth must vest power in one
central authority with power to punish those who break the contract.
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 LAW OF NATURE
 Hobbes concludes his first law of nature that natural man, in order to
preserve life, must seek peace
 The second law of nature follows upon the mandate to seek peace
 The third law of nature states that it is not enough simply to make
contracts, but that we are required to keep the contracts we make
 The fourth law of nature is to show gratitude toward those who
maintain the contract so that no one will regret having complied with
the contract
 The fifth law states that we must be accommodating to others for the
purpose of protecting the contract and not quarrel over minor issues.

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 Hobbe’s Individualism

 "The natural state of man's life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" –
 Hobbes is generally identified as the most important direct predecessor of
modern individualist philosophy
 Hobbes has ascribed to all individuals natural liberty on the basis of which
they are licensed to undertake whatever actions are necessary in order to
preserve themselves from their fellow creatures
 Hobbes believed that the exercise of such natural liberty logically leads to
unceasing conflict and unremitting fear so long as no single sovereign ruler
exists to maintain peace
 Hence it can be summarized that the goal of Hobbes’ philosophy is simply
survival
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 Hobbe’s Human Nature
 Hobbes believed that human beings naturally desire the power to live well
and that they will never be satisfied with the power they have without
acquiring more power
 He believes there usually succeeds a new desire such as fame and glory,
ease and sensual pleasure or admiration from others
 He also believed that all people are created equally
 That everyone is equally capable of killing each other
 Hobbes believed that the nature of humanity leads people to seek power

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 Consequences of The Social Contract Theory
 The force of the sovereign is absolute
 This is on account of the sovereign is the consequence of the agreement,
not a gathering to the contract. The contract is unavoidable
 Men surrendered all their rights to the sovereign
 No force in the state ought to be permitted to test the sovereign
 The sovereign is additionally no punishable. The sovereign is the sole
judge to choose what is important for the peace and safeguard of his
subjects
 Sovereign has the power to hear and choose all debates in regards to
common or criminal laws
 Sovereign has the power to announce war and close peace
 Hobbes says that the subjects can delight in just those rights which the
sovereign licenses
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Consequences of The Social Contract Theory ….

 Freedom is the endowment of the sovereign

 Liberty of the subject thus consisted in:
 1. what the sovereign has permitted
 2. What the sovereign has not permitted
 3. The right of self-preservation which is retained by the people
 There is stand out contract in Hobbes. This is an agreement entered into by
the individuals among themselves
 This agreement secured a ruler. There is no agreement between the
individuals and the sovereign
 Hobbes was attempting to accommodate a tyrant government with political
power as got from the individuals
 The individuals surrendered their common rights for the purpose of self-
conservation. Accordingly, they needed to pay a substantial cost for peace
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 Features of Sovereignty
 The sovereign is absolute and all powerful. His powers to frame laws of
the land are not restricted by any human agency.
 He is the singular law-making authority.
 No condition, explicit or implicit, can be imposed on the sovereign, for his
power is unlimited.
 Subjects have no authority to call any explanation from the sovereign for
his misdeeds. They have no right to threaten, to punish him, to banish or
depose him.
 The sovereign is the fountain of justice and honor.

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 Features of Sovereignty……

 The sovereign has full power to declare war against any country or nation
whenever he likes
 Sovereignty is indivisible; inalienable and unpunishable
 The sovereign formulates laws regarding property and taxation etc, and he
has full rights to allow or disallow freedom of speech to his subject
 The sovereign has to protect his people from internal disruption and
external aggression for the preservation of peace and glory of the state.
 If the sovereign ignores the pact, he can do so, because he is no party to the
contract

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 CRITICISM
 Gauthier, Kleinerman, and Van Mill have given the most famous critiques
about Hobbes’ political philosophy
 Logic versus Irrationality
 Curbing civil liberties
 Pessimistic ideas
 Anti Democratic
 Conception of limited resources
 Rejecting basic individual right
 Universalization of the appetites and aversions
 Contradiction
 Reality of a Leviathan

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 Criticism……

 The whole conception of social contract and an organized society resulting

from it is unhistorical. There are no examples in history when Hobbes’s
men gathered together and signed a contract for the formation of a civil
society
 Hobbes portrays a dismal picture of the state of nature, which is far from
satisfactory. He paints a darker side and completely ignores a brighter side
of human nature. His picture reflects the evils of his man. He declares man
selfish, solitary and brutish. But human nature has two essential aspects,
good and bad. He always speaks of the badness of human nature.

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Criticism……

 Hobbes was of the view that the state of nature is a state of war, the war
of all against all, in which the cardinal virtues are force and fraud. How
could such a man go against his own nature and suddenly enter a “state
not of war, but of peace, not of force and fraud but of right and justice.”
 Hobbes says that there were no laws in the state of nature. This is
baseless
 Hobbes’s sovereign appears to be the representative of the people, who
follows public opinion and looks after public welfare. This is the only one
aspect in which Hobbes has recognized the limitations of his Leviathan

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John Locke

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 Life
 Born August 29, 1632 Wrington, Somerset, England Died October 28, 1704
 Main interests Metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of
mind, education, economics
 Notable ideas Tabula rasa, "government with the consent of the governed",
state of nature; rights of life, liberty and property
 Influences
 Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Avicenna, Grotius, Rutherford, Descartes,
Hooker, Filmer , Pufendorf, Hobbes, Polish Brethren (religious group
whose ideas were incorporated into Locke's theories)
 Influenced
 Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer, Berkeley, Burke, Paine, Smith, Voltaire,
Condillac, Rousseau
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 John Locke Life and works

 John Locke’s Major Works

 (1689) “A Letter Concerning Toleration”
 (1690) “ A Second Letter Concerning” Toleration
 (1692) “ A Third Letter for Toleration”
 (1689) “Two Treatises of Government”
 (1690) “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
 (1693) “Some Thoughts Concerning Education”
 (1695) “ The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the
Scriptures”
 (1695) “ The Reasonableness of Christianity”

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 John Locke Life and works
 Most Influential Works

 “ An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”

 “ The Second Treatise of Civil Government”
 “ A Letter Concerning Toleration”

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 John Locke Life and works
 A proponent of the school of Empiricism
 Reject the philosophy that man has innate ideas (Aristotle)
 The beginning of knowledge is through sense Experience
 Gives the analogy of the man to a blank tablet or “Tabula rasa”
 The two fountains of knowledge are sensation and reflection
 There are two kinds of ideas:
 The simple and The complex ideas
 There are degrees of knowledge: a) Intuitive knowledge b) Demonstrative
knowledge c) Sensitive knowledge
 Empiricism is a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily
from sensory experience. John Locke, is the leading philosopher of British
empiricism
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John Locke Life and works……..

 “Successful revolutions are stimulating to those who believe in them. Locke

is the most fortunate of all philosophers for, he completed his work in
theoretical philosophy just at the moment when the Government of his
country fell into the hands of men who shared his political opinions. His
political doctrine is embedded in the American Constitution.” (Bertrand
Russel)

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John Locke Life and works……..

 Sensationalism:
 Locke was of the view that all knowledge and beliefs come through our
senses and experiences. There is nothing in mind except what was first
in the sense.
 Utilitarianism:
 He is one of the great pleader of utilitarianism
 His conception is quite apparent from his contention that “happiness and
misery are the two great springs of human action.”
 He was of the view that morality is pleasure and pleasure is only
conformity to universal law

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John Locke Life and works……..

 Utilitarianism:
 Optimistic Conception of Human Nature:
 Locke believes in the inherent goodness of human beings. He says
that man is a rational, sensible and social creature. He feels love,
sympathy and tenderness towards his fellow-beings and is capable of
being actuated by altruistic motives. He wants to live in peace and
harmony with others.

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Locke’s View on Natural Rights of Man

Locke appears to be a true democrat when he says that the establishment

of a commonwealth stands for the complete security of natural rights of
men. Natural rights of citizens are:
1.Right to life
2.Right to property
3.Right to liberty

“Most distinctive contribution of Locke to political theory is the doctrine

of natural rights.” (Dunning)

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 Locke’s Conception of Popular Sovereignty

 Locke is regarded as the champion of people’s rights and a harbinger of

their sacred and fundamental liberties
 His social contract did not create the irresponsible, cruel and absolutist
“Leviathan” of Hobbes, but reserved the sovereign rights to the final
judge of all actions, the community
 The ultimate supreme power is not vested in the scepter of king; but it
remains in the hands of the people.

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 Locke’s Conception of Popular Sovereignty

 Locke did not advance the idea of legal, absolute and indivisible
sovereignty
 The very idea of it was discarded by him because Machiavellian and
Hobbesian conception of sovereignty brings about a reign of terror for the
people who would loudly whisper for freedom and equality
 He initiated the conception of popular sovereignty, which has been firmly
accepted, a best way of rule by the succeeding thinkers and the whole
world own him too much, because real and practical democracy was
strongly enunciated

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Locke’s Conception of Popular Sovereignty…..

 Locke stood for a Government which should be subject to a number of

limitations
 It cannot rule with coercion and intimidation and tax them without their
will
 A government which violated its limitations is not worthy of obedience. The
state is created for certain conveniences and it must justify itself by creating
those conveniences
 The basic rights of the individual life, liberty and property are to be
protected rather than restricted by the state
 The king has neither the divine authority nor any moral justification to over
load the subject. All men are equal in the eye of Almighty God and their
basic rights must not be violated under the civil laws of the state.
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Locke’s Conception of Popular Sovereignty…..

 Locke’s Government created by the unanimous consent of the majority

should have freedom of speech, of election and of religious worship and in
order that it may be prevented from becoming too autocratic and arbitrary
 This democratic government should be run by a system of checks and
balances
 In other words, the government should be divided into three main organs
such as legislature, executive and judiciary
 And of these three, the legislature should be supreme, as is evidently
available in the modern constitutions

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 Tabula Rasa or Blank Slate
 A proponent of the school of Empiricism
 Reject the philosophy that man has innate ideas
 The beginning of knowledge is through sense Experience
 Gives the analogy of the man to a blank tablet or “Tabula rasa”
 The two fountains of knowledge are sensation and reflection
 There are two kinds of ideas:
 The simple and The complex ideas
 There are degrees of knowledge:
 a) Intuitive knowledge
 b) Demonstrative knowledge
 c) Sensitive knowledge

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Tabula Rasa or Blank Slate…..

 Tabula rasa is a Latin word that originates from the Roman tabula or
wax tablet used for notes, which was blanked by heating the wax and
then smoothing it
 The mind in it’s hypothetical primary empty state before receiving
outside
 “There is nothing in mind except was first in the senses.” JOHN LOCKE

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Tabula Rasa or Blank Slate…..
 The senses convey to the mind whatever it requires to produce
perceptions of sensible qualities
 Understanding conveys the sense perception to our sensation
 Sensation is great part source of our ideas
 The sensation is dependent on what the senses perceive and as derived
from understanding
 Perception, thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing and willing
follow upon sensation
 When the ideas perceived by the senses bounce back to the mind that
perceives this is the activity of reflection

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 John Locke social contract theory
 John Locke's version of social contract theory is striking in saying that
the only right people give up in order to enter into civil society and its
benefits is the right to punish other people for violating rights. No
other rights are given up, only the right to be a vigilante.

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 State of nature
 The state of nature, in moral and political philosophy, religion, social
contract theories and international law, is the hypothetical life of people
before societies came into existence

 Philosophers of the state of nature theory deduce that there must have
been a time before organized societies existed, and this presumption thus
raises questions such as: "What was life like before civil society?“

 "How did government first emerge from such a starting position?," and;
"What are the hypothetical reasons for entering a state of society by
establishing a nation-state?"

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 State of nature
 In some versions of social contract theory, there are no rights in the state
of nature, only freedoms, and it is the contract that creates rights and
obligations
 In other versions the opposite occurs: the contract imposes restrictions
upon individuals that curtail their natural rights.

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 Locke’s State of nature

 John Locke considers the state of nature in his Second Treatise on Civil
Government written around the time of the Exclusion Crisis in England
during the 1680s
 For Locke, in the state of nature all men are free "to order their actions, and
dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds
of the law of nature."
 "The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it", and that law is reason
 Locke believes that reason teaches that "no one ought to harm another in
his life, liberty, and or property" ; and

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 Locke’s State of nature
 That transgressions of this may be punished. Locke describes the state of
nature and civil society to be opposites of each other, and the need for civil
society comes in part from the perpetual existence of the state of nature
 This view of the state of nature is partly deduced from Christian belief
(unlike Hobbes, whose philosophy is not dependent upon any prior
theology)
 Although it may be natural to assume that Locke was responding to Hobbes,
Locke never refers to Hobbes by name, and may instead have been
responding to other writers of the day, like Robert Filmer

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 Locke’s State of nature
 In fact, Locke's First Treatise is entirely a response to Filmer's Patriarcha,
and takes a step by step method to refuting Filmer's theory set out in
Patriarcha
 The conservative party at the time had rallied behind Filmer's Patriarcha,
whereas the Whigs, scared of another prosecution of Anglicans and
Protestants, rallied behind the theory set out by Locke in his Two Treatises
of Government as it gave a clear theory as to why the people would be
justified in overthrowing a monarchy which abuses the trust they had
placed in it

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 Locke’s state of nature
 Locke writes “Lack of a common judge, with authority, puts all men in a
state of nature”
 “Men living together according to reason, without a common superior
on earth, with authority to judge between them, is properly the state
of nature.” (Two Treatises)
 Many commentators have taken this as Locke’s definition, concluding
that the state of nature exists wherever there is no legitimate political
authority able to judge disputes and where people live according to the
law of reason

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 Locke’s state of nature
 According to Strauss, Locke presents the state of nature as a factual
description of what the earliest society is like, an account that when read
closely reveals Locke’s departure from Christian teachings
 State of nature theories, he and his followers argue, are contrary to the
Biblical account in Genesis and evidence that Locke’s teaching is similar
to that of Hobbes
 Locke uses a state of nature to explain what life would be like without a
Government
 “All men are liable to error , and most men are , in many points , by
passion or interest ,under temptation to it.” What will happen
without a government? looting
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 Locke’s state of nature
 A Natural Foundation of Reason
 Locke argues that God gave us our capacity for reason to aid us in the
search for truth
 God created in us a natural aversion to misery and a desire for happiness
 Locke’s belief in separation of church and state.

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 Locke’s state of nature
 For Locke , the state of nature is characterized by the absence of
government but not by the absence of mutual obligation
 Beyond self-preservation, the law of nature, or reason, also teaches “all
mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no
one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, or possessions.”
 Unlike Hobbes, Locke believed individuals are naturally endowed with
these rights (to life, liberty, and property) and that the state of nature
could be relatively peaceful

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 Locke’s state of nature
 Individuals nevertheless agree to form a commonwealth (and thereby to
leave the state of nature) in order to institute an impartial power capable
of arbitrating their disputes and redressing injuries
 Locke’s idea that the rights to life, liberty, and property are natural rights
that precede the establishment of civil society influenced the American
Revolution and modern liberalism more generally

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 Separation of Powers and
the Dissolution of Government

 Locke claims that legitimate government is based on the idea of separation

of powers
 First and foremost of these is the legislative power. Locke describes the
legislative power as supreme in having ultimate authority over “how the
force for the commonwealth shall be employed”
 The legislature is still bound by the law of nature and much of what it does
is set down laws that further the goals of natural law and specify
appropriate punishments for them

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 Separation of Powers and
the Dissolution of Government
 The executive power is then charged with enforcing the law as it is applied
in specific cases. Interestingly, Locke’s third power is called the “federative
power” and it consists of the right to act internationally according to the
law of nature. Since countries are still in the state of nature with respect
to each other, they must follow the dictates of natural law and can punish
one another for violations of that law in order to protect the rights of their
citizens
 The fact that Locke does not mention the judicial power as a separate
power becomes clearer if we distinguish powers from institutions. Powers
relate to functions.

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 Separation of Powers and
the Dissolution of Government
 To have a power means that there is a function (such as making the
laws or enforcing the laws) that one may legitimately perform
 When Locke says that the legislative is supreme over the executive, he is
not saying that parliament is supreme over the king. Locke is simply
affirming that “what can give laws to another, must needs be superior
to him”
 Moreover, Locke thinks that it is possible for multiple institutions to
share the same power; for example, the legislative power in his day was
shared by the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the King.
Since all three needed to agree for something to become law, all three
are part of the legislative power

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 Separation of Powers and
the Dissolution of Government
 He also thinks that the federative power and the executive power are
normally placed in the hands of the executive, so it is possible for the
same person to exercise more than one power (or function). There is,
therefore, no one-to-one correspondence between powers and institutions
 Locke is not opposed to having distinct institutions called courts, but he
does not see interpretation as a distinct function or power
 For Locke, legislation is primarily about announcing a general rule
stipulating what types of actions should receive what types of
punishments. The executive power is the power to make the judgments
necessary to apply those rules to specific cases and administer force as
directed by the rule

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 Separation of Powers and
the Dissolution of Government
 Locke states that positive laws “are only so far right, as they are
founded on the law of nature, by which they are to be regulated and
interpreted”
 In other words, the executive must interpret the laws in light of its
understanding of natural law.
 Locke did not think of interpreting law as a distinct function because he
thought it was a part of both the legislative and executive functions
 If we compare Locke’s formulation of separation of powers to the later
ideas of Montesquieu (1989), we see that they are not so different as
they may initially appear

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 Separation of Powers and
the Dissolution of Government
 Locke considered arresting a person, trying a person, and punishing a
person as all part of the function of executing the law rather than as a
distinct function
 Locke believed that it was important that the legislative power contain
an assembly of elected representatives, but as we have seen the
legislative power could contain monarchical and aristocratic elements as
well. Locke believed the people had the freedom to create “mixed”
constitutions that utilize all of these
 For that reason, Locke’s theory of separation of powers does not
dictate one particular type of constitution and does not preclude
unelected officials from having part of the legislative power

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 Dissolution of Government/Revolt

 Locke also affirms that the community remains the real supreme power
throughout. The people retain the right to “remove or alter” the
legislative power
 This can happen for a variety of reasons
 The entire society can be dissolved by a successful foreign invasion , but
Locke is more interested in describing the occasions when the people take
power back from the government to which they have entrusted it
 If the rule of law is ignored, if the representatives of the people are
prevented from assembling, if the mechanisms of election are altered
without popular consent, or if the people are handed over to a foreign
power, then they can take back their original authority and overthrow the
government
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 Dissolution of Government

 They can also rebel if the government attempts to take away their
rights
 Locke thinks this is justifiable since oppressed people will likely rebel
anyway, and those who are not oppressed will be unlikely to rebel
 Moreover, the threat of possible rebellion makes tyranny less likely to
start with
 For all these reasons, while there are a variety of legitimate
constitutional forms, the delegation of power under any constitution is
understood to be conditional

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 Dissolution of Government
 Locke’s understanding of separation of powers is complicated by the
doctrine of prerogative
 Prerogative is the right of the executive to act without explicit
authorization for a law, or even contrary to the law, in order to better
fulfill the laws that seek the preservation of human life
 This poses a challenge to Locke’s doctrine of legislative supremacy.
Locke handles this by explaining that the rationale for this power is that
general rules cannot cover all possible cases and that inflexible
adherence to the rules would be detrimental to the public good and
that the legislature is not always in session to render a judgment

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 Dissolution of Government
 The relationship between the executive and the legislature depends on
the specific constitution
 If the chief executive has no part in the supreme legislative power, then the
legislature could overrule the executive’s decisions based on prerogative
when it reconvenes
 If, however, the chief executive has a veto, the result would be a stalemate
between them
 Locke describes a similar stalemate in the case where the chief executive
has the power to call parliament and can thus prevent it from meeting by
refusing to call it into session. In such a case, Locke says, there is no judge
on earth between them as to whether the executive has misused
prerogative and both sides have the right to “appeal to heaven” in the
same way that the people can appeal to heaven against a tyrannical
government 72
 Dissolution of Government
 The concept of an “appeal to heaven” is an important concept in Locke’s
thought
 Locke assumes that people, when they leave the state of nature, create a
government with some sort of constitution that specifies which entities are
entitled to exercise which powers
 Locke also assumes that these powers will be used to protect the rights of
the people and to promote the public good
 In cases where there is a dispute between the people and the government
about whether the government is fulfilling its obligations, there is no higher
human authority to which one can appeal. The only appeal left, for Locke, is
the appeal to God. The “appeal to heaven,” therefore, involves taking up
arms against your opponent and letting God judge who is in the right.
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 Education
 In his "Thoughts Concerning Education" (1693), Locke argued for a
broadened syllabus and better treatment of students—ideas that were an
enormous influence on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel "Emile" (1762).

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 Toleration
 In Locke’s Letter Concerning Toleration, he develops several lines of
argument that are intended to establish the proper spheres for religion and
politics
 His central claims are that government should not use force to try to bring
people to the true religion and that religious societies are voluntary
organizations that have no right to use coercive power over their own
members or those outside their group
 Locke argues that neither the example of Jesus nor the teaching of the New
Testament gives any indication that force is a proper way to bring people to
salvation

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 Toleration
 In addition to these and similar religious arguments, Locke gives three
reasons that are more philosophical in nature for barring governments from
using force to encourage people to adopt religious beliefs
 First, he argues that the care of men’s souls has not been committed to the
magistrate by either God or the consent of men
 Locke’s second argument is that since the power of the government is only
force, while true religion consists of genuine inward persuasion of the mind,
force is incapable of bringing people to the true religion
 Locke’s third argument is that even if the magistrate could change people’s
minds, a situation where everyone accepted the magistrate’s religion would
not bring more people to the true religion

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