This chapter examines John Locke's work entitled Two Treatises of Government
Two Treatises of Government
Two Treatises of Government is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke. The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, while the Second Treatise outlines Locke's ideas …
Why is John Locke's Two Treatises of government important?
John Locke's Two Treatises of Government is an important contribution to social contract theory and therefore modern political theory. Social contract theory holds that government is justified when government representatives operate according to the consent of those they govern for the sake of their rights.
What is the main idea of Two Treatises of government?
Two Treatises of Government, major statement of the political philosophy of the English philosopher John Locke, published in 1689. The first treatise is a refutation of the theory of the divine right of kings, and the second is a philosophical treatment of the origins and limits of political authority.
How many treatises of government are there?
Two Treatises of Government. In 1691 Two Treatises was translated into French by David Mazzel, a French Huguenot living in the Netherlands. This translation left out Locke's "Preface," all of the First Treatise, and the first chapter of the Second Treatise (which summarised Locke's conclusions in the First Treatise ).
Why were two treatises of government published in 1689?
Two Treatises of Government were published in 1689, one year after the Glorious Revolution. The Glorious Revolution overthrew King James II. King James II built up military forces and allowed the soldiers to abuse innocent people.
What is the importance of Two Treatises on government?
The main idea expressed in John Locke's Two Treatises of Government is that we can use the idea of a state of nature to justify a proper government. If we grant that humans are naturally free and equal, then government must protect the liberty of its subjects equally.
Why was John Locke's Two Treatises important?
John Locke (1632–1704) is among the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch.
What was the impact and influence of Two Treatises of Government?
Locke's philosophical view on politics in his work, the Two Treatises Of Government, had a major influence on this movement where he tried to justify the fall of monarchy and a creation of a new form of government for the people.
What is the message of the two treatises of government?
The Second Treatise of Government places sovereignty into the hands of the people. Locke's fundamental argument is that people are equal and invested with natural rights in a state of nature in which they live free from outside rule.
How did John Locke's Two Treatises of Government influence the American Revolution?
Often credited as a founder of modern “liberal” thought, Locke pioneered the ideas of natural law, social contract, religious toleration, and the right to revolution that proved essential to both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution that followed.
What is the main purpose of government according to John Locke?
The purpose of government, Locke wrote, is to secure and protect the God-given inalienable natural rights of the people. For their part, the people must obey the laws of their rulers. Thus, a sort of contract exists between the rulers and the ruled.
What was the theme of the book two treaties of government?
'Two Treatises of Government' was written by John Locke. In this book, he sought to refute the doctrine of divine and absolute right of monarch.
What would you say is Locke's main idea?
Based on these two passages, what would you say is Locke's main idea? Locke believes that all people are made equal, therefore, they should be treated equally. Also, when it comes to government, it is the people who have the freedom to establish a new one if necessary.
What did the Second Treatise of Government inspire?
His integration of individualism within the framework of the law of nature and his account of the origins and limits of legitimate government authority inspired the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776) and the broad outlines of the system of government adopted in the U.S. Constitution.
What would you say is Locke's main idea?
Based on these two passages, what would you say is Locke's main idea? Locke believes that all people are made equal, therefore, they should be treated equally. Also, when it comes to government, it is the people who have the freedom to establish a new one if necessary.
What was John Locke known for?
The English philosopher and political theorist John Locke (1632-1704) laid much of the groundwork for the Enlightenment and made central contributions to the development of liberalism. Trained in medicine, he was a key advocate of the empirical approaches of the Scientific Revolution.
What is the main idea of the Second Treatise of Government?
The main idea of the Second Treatise of Government is that government power originates with a social contract. In other words, government is crea...
What is the purpose of government according to John Locke's Two Treatises of Government?
The main purpose of government is to protect the rights of the governed. This also entails that government operates with the consent of the governe...
What was the main idea expressed in John Locke's Two Treatises of Government?
The main idea expressed in John Locke's Two Treatises of Government is that we can use the idea of a state of nature to justify a proper governme...
John Locke
John Locke, who was born in 1632, was a pre-eminent English philosopher and theorist who made contributions to a variety of fields. Locke's Two Treatises of Government is his most famous contributions to political theory. It was published immediately after the Glorious Revolution, which it seems Locke's work is meant to justify.
Summary of First Treatise of Government
A summary of the First Treatise of Government has to address the work of Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha. Filmer advances a theory of legitimacy, favoring the divine right of kings. In short, the king draws authority from God because the king is a descendant of God.
John Locke's Second Treatise of Government Summary
The Second Treatise of Government is devoted to laying out Locke's own theory of legitimacy. Thus, a Second Treatise of Government summary will need to account for the rightful purpose and limits of government. Instead of a belief in a divine bloodline, it uses the thought experiment of a state of nature.
What was the purpose of the two treatises?
Locke claims in the "Preface" to the Two Treatises that its purpose is to justify William III's ascension to the throne , though Peter Laslett suggests that the bulk of the writing was instead completed between 1679–1680 (and subsequently revised until Locke was driven into exile in 1683). According to Laslett, Locke was writing his Two Treatises during the Exclusion Crisis, which attempted to prevent James II from ever taking the throne in the first place. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, Locke's mentor, patron and friend, introduced the bill, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. Richard Ashcraft, following in Laslett's suggestion that the Two Treatises were written before the Revolution, objected that Shaftesbury's party did not advocate revolution during the Exclusion Crisis. He suggests that they are instead better associated with the revolutionary conspiracies that swirled around what would come to be known as the Rye House Plot. Locke, Shaftesbury and many others were forced into exile; some, such as Sidney, were even executed for treason. Locke knew his work was dangerous—he never acknowledged his authorship within his lifetime.
Who wrote the Treatise of Government?
The Latter Is an Essay Concerning The True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government) is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke. The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer 's Patriarcha, while the Second Treatise outlines Locke's ideas for a more civilized society based on natural rights and contract theory .
How many of the two treatises were published?
Between 1689 and 1694, around 200 tract s and treatises were published concerning the legitimacy of the Glorious Revolution. Three of these mention Locke, two of which were written by friends of Locke. When Hobbes published the Leviathan in 1651, by contrast, dozens of texts were immediately written in response to it. As Mark Goldie explains: " Leviathan was a monolithic and unavoidable presence for political writers in Restoration England in a way that in the first half of the eighteenth the Two Treatises was not."
What is Locke's goal in the argument?
First, he neutralises the claims of those who see all authority flowing from William I by the latter's right of conquest. In the absence of any other claims to authority (e.g., Filmer ' s primogeniture from Adam, divine anointment, etc.), all kings would have to found their authority on the consent of the governed. Second, he removes much of the incentive for conquest in the first place, for even in a just war the spoils are limited to the persons of the defeated and reparations sufficient only to cover the costs of the war , and even then only when the aggressor's territor y can easily sustain such costs (i.e., it can never be a profitable endeavour). Needless to say, the bare claim that one's spoils are the just compensation for a just war does not suffice to make it so, in Locke's view.
What is the first treatise of Locke?
The First Treatise is an extended attack on Sir Robert Filmer 's Patriarcha. Locke's argument proceeds along two lines: first, he undercuts the Scriptural support that Filmer had offered for his thesis, and second he argues that the acceptance of Filmer's thesis can lead only to slavery (and absurdity). Locke chose Filmer as his target, he says, because of his reputation and because he "carried this Argument [ jure divino] farthest, and is supposed to have brought it to perfection" (1st Tr., § 5).
What did Locke write in Two Tracts on Government?
In Two Tracts on Government, written in 1660, Locke defends a very conservative position; however, Locke never published it. In 1669, Locke co-authored the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, which endorses aristocracy, slavery and serfdom.
What is the title of the 2nd treatise?
Two Treatises is divided into the First Treatise and the Second Treatise. The original title of the Second Treatise appears to have been simply "Book II, " corresponding to the title of the First Treatise, "Book I.".
Who wrote the first treatise on the right of kings?
The first treatise was aimed squarely at the work of another 17th-century political theorist, Sir Robert Filmer, whose Patriarcha (1680, though probably written in the 1630s) defended the theory of divine right of kings: the authority of every king is divinely sanctioned by his descent from Adam —according to the Bible, the first king and the father of humanity. Locke claims that Filmer’s doctrine defies “common sense.” The right to rule by descent from Adam’s first grant could not be supported by any historical record or any other evidence, and any contract that God and Adam entered into would not be binding on remote descendants thousands of years later, even if a line of descent could be identified. His refutation was widely accepted as decisive, and in any event the theory of the divine right of kings ceased to be taken seriously in England after 1688.
What was Locke's vision of society?
The significance of Locke’s vision of political society can scarcely be exaggerated. His integration of individualism within the framework of the law of nature and his account of the origins and limits of legitimate government authority inspired the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776) and the broad outlines of the system of government adopted in the U.S. Constitution. George Washington, the first president of the United States, once described Locke as “the greatest man who had ever lived.” In France too, Lockean principles found clear expression in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and other justifications of the French Revolution of 1789.
What is the preface to the Glorious Revolution?
In the preface to the work, composed at a later date, Locke makes clear that the arguments of the two treatises are continuous and that the whole constitutes a justification of the Glorious Revolution, which brought the Protestant William III and Mary II to the throne following the flight of James II to France.
What was Locke's major work in political philosophy?
Out of this context emerged Locke’s major work in political philosophy, Two Treatises of Government (1689). Although scholars disagree over the exact date of its composition, it is certain that it was substantially composed before Locke fled to Holland. In this respect the Two Treatises was a response to the political situation as it existed in ...
What is the importance of property in political theory?
Each person, according to Locke, has property in his own person —that is, each person literally owns his own body.
What is the significance of the introduction of money?
The introduction of money, while radically changing the economic base of society, was itself a contingent development, for money has no intrinsic value but depends for its utility only on convention. Locke’s account of property and how it comes to be owned faces difficult problems.
What was Locke's attitude toward Catholicism?
The essentially Protestant Christian framework of Locke’s philosophy meant that his attitude toward Roman Catholicism would always be hostile. He rejected the claim of papal infallibility (how could it ever be proved?), and he feared the political dimensions of Catholicism as a threat to English autonomy, especially after Louis XIV in 1685 revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had granted religious liberty to the Protestant Huguenots.
What did Locke believe about government?
Summary: Locke believed that there could be a greater type of government.
What is the purpose of a legitimate government?
The aim of such a legitimate government is to preserve, so far as possible, the rights to life, liberty, health and property of its citizens, and to prosecute and punish those of its citizens who violate the rights of others and to pursue the public good even where this may conflict with the rights of individuals. In doing this it provides something unavailable in the state of nature, an impartial judge to determine the severity of the crime, and to set a punishment proportionate to the crime. This is one of the main
Why did Socrates want the jury to sentence him to death?
Xenophon, citing Hermogenes’ testimony, claims that Socrates wanted the jury to sentence him to death, for he was an old man and tired of living.
Why was Locke's claim that men are naturally free and equal important?
Locke used the claim that men are naturally free and equal as part of the justification for understanding legitimate political government as the result of a social contract where people in the state of nature condition ally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property. Since governments exist by the consent of the people in order to protect the rights of the people and promote the public good, governments that fail to do so can be resisted and replaced with new governments. Locke is thus also important for his defense of the right of revolution.
What did Socrates say to him when he saw him discussing anything and everything?
He reports, for example, that when he saw him discussing anything and everything rather than the trial, he said to him, "Socrates, shouldn't you really have been thinking about what you're going to say in your defense as well?"
What is the main essence of the liberal movement?
The main essence of the current liberal movement is focused on issues. Those issues relate to human freedom, rights, government, and the economy. But the issues are not just floating ideas that liberals profess. They are responses to conservative attacks on individ
Which law gives the philosopher authority to practice philosophy?
Divine law takes precedence over human law and it is the divine law which grants him the authority to practice philosophy.
What rights did John Locke believe?
Liberty, Life and ownership of Properties are rights we argue to this day. As Americans our Constitution protects these rights. Locke believed it was the task of any state to protect man’s rights. He continued if the government did not protect these rights, the citizens could seek new ruler. People have the right to decide who should rule. Doesn’t this sound familiar? John Locke’s writings and beliefs inspired many of our founding fathers, and it could be seen in many important U.S. documents, most notably The Declaration of Independence.
What did Locke believe about the King?
In reading this work, Locke provides political ideas, rejecting the divine rights of Kings. Locke believes societies should form government with common agreement. The Preface starts with Locke writing about King William, “the king, and body of the nation, have since so thoroughly confuted his Hypothesis, that I suppose nobody hereafter will have either the confidence to appear against our common safety, and be again an advocate for slavery”. He explains the King’s stance on human rights and how change needed to happen. He continued in Chapter One with the issue of slavery. “Slavery is so vile and miserable an estate of man”. Locke’s views were ahead of its time.
What is the Declaration of Independence based on?
The document called the Declaration of Independence. His political beliefs were based on the concept of a social contract between citizens. Especially in the importance of toleration, particularly in matters of religion. The goal of this writing is to summarize one of Locke’s books. In the book, Two Treatises of Government, Locke writes and explains defending natural rights and government responsibilities to protecting those rights. He also discusses the religious impact to these rights and how absolute monarch was not the right way to govern mankind.
Why did John Locke write the Treatises of Government?
John Locke wrote the two treatises of government to criticize the British monarch at the time. It was led by Charles II, who according to Locke was misusing authority. With this publication, Lock hoped to open people's minds to a new form of governance.
What did Locke believe about the right to liberty?
2. Natural Right to Liberty: Locke abhors slavery and the subjugation of one human being by another. He believes that everyone has a right to be free. He also talks about the equality of men and living without any form of hierarchy.
Which philosopher asserted that man has the right to life, liberty, and property?
Locke asserts that Man has the right to life, liberty, and property.
Which branch is limited to executing laws?
The Executive Branch is limited to executing these laws.
Overview
Two Treatises of Government (or Two Treatises of Government: In the Former, The False Principles, and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, and His Followers, Are Detected and Overthrown. The Latter Is an Essay Concerning The True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government) is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke. The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism i…
Historical context
King James II of England (VII of Scotland) was overthrown in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians and the stadtholder of the Dutch Republic William III of Oranje-Nassau (William of Orange), who as a result ascended the English throne as William III of England. He ruled jointly with Mary II, as Protestants. Mary was the daughter of James II, and had a strong claim to the English Throne.
This is now known as the Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688. Locke claims i…
Publication history
Two Treatises was first published anonymously in December 1689 (following printing conventions of the time, its title page was marked 1690). Locke was dissatisfied with the numerous errors and complained to the publisher. For the rest of his life, he was intent on republishing the Two Treatises in a form that better reflected its intended meaning. Peter Laslett, one of the foremost Locke …
Main ideas
Two Treatises is divided into the First Treatise and the Second Treatise. The original title of the Second Treatise appears to have been simply "Book II," corresponding to the title of the First Treatise, "Book I." Before publication, however, Locke gave it greater prominence by (hastily) inserting a separate title page: "An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government." The First Treatise is focused on the refutation of Sir Robert Filmer, in particular his …
First Treatise
The First Treatise is an extended attack on Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha. Locke's argument proceeds along two lines: first, he undercuts the Scriptural support that Filmer had offered for his thesis, and second he argues that the acceptance of Filmer's thesis can lead only to slavery (and absurdity). Locke chose Filmer as his target, he says, because of his reputation and because he "…
Second Treatise
In the Second Treatise Locke develops a number of notable themes. It begins with a depiction of the state of nature, wherein individuals are under no obligation to obey one another but are each themselves judge of what the law of nature requires. It also covers conquest and slavery, property, representative government, and the right of revolution.
Locke defines the state of nature thus:
Reception and influence
Although the Two Treatises would become well known in the second half of the 18th century, they were somewhat neglected when published. Between 1689 and 1694, around 200 tracts and treatises were published concerning the legitimacy of the Glorious Revolution. Three of these mention Locke, two of which were written by friends of Locke. When Hobbes published the Leviathan in 1651, by contrast, dozens of texts were immediately written in response to it. As M…
Controversies regarding interpretation
Locke's political philosophy is often compared and contrasted with Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. The motivation in both cases is self-preservation with Hobbes arguing the need of an absolute monarch to prevent the war of "all against all" inherent in anarchy while Locke argues that the protection of life, liberty, and property can be achieved by a parliamentary process that protects, not violates, one's rights.