John Locke was an English Philosopher who lived between 1632 and 1704 and is among the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. He published, in 1690, The Two Treatises of Government which became popular amongst figures like Thomas Jefferson, Jeane-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Paine. The ideas contained therein were influential in the drafting of the constitution of the United States of America. Locke lived through a period of political turbulence in England and is best remembered for his defense, in his publications, of the right of the revolution of 1688.
In the Two Treatises of Government, Locke uses a method similar to that adopted by Rene Descartes when he begins his argument from an original position prior to the setting up of a political society which he called “the state of nature” and then develops his theories that claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch.
He argues that people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property. He asserts that these rights have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society.
Locke uses the claim that men are naturally free and equal as part of his justification for the understanding that a legitimate political government is the result of a social contract where people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better insure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property.
He introduces the idea of Tacit Consent in which he postulates that by living within a state we have implicitly agreed to the authority of the state and 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.
In the treatise, Locke also defends the principle of majority rule and the separation of legislative and executive powers. Locke’s political philosophy is a good entry point for all those who wish to learn more about the theories of political systems in our societies today.
Reference:
Locke, John. [1690] 1960 Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Peter Laslett. New York: New American Library.
