John Locke (1)

Locke’s
Natural Rights
&
Limited Governments
A Biography of John Locke (1632-1704)
John locke was a British philosopher, Oxford
academician and medical researcher.
John Locke was born on August 29th, 1632 in
England and lived to became one of the
most influential people in England and,
perhaps, one of the most influential people
of the 17th century. Before his death on
October 28th, 1704 he would earn the title
as the Father of liberal philosophy. His ideas
would also be used as a keystone for the
revolution of the North American colonies
from England.
Works of John Locke
1. A Letter concerning Toleration
2. Two Treatise of Civil Governments
3. An Essay concerning Human
Understanding
4. Some thoughts concerning an
education
Theory of Natural Rights
Right to Life
Right to Liberty
Right Property
Summery
John Locke on Limited Government
 Locke did not agree with Hobbes that the
government has absolute power and authority. His
opinion on the government “was bound by the
following limitations.
1. No right to destroy: The government could not have
a right to destroy , enslave or impoverish the
subjects.
2. Through known Laws: The government should
governor not by unknown laws but the laws which
have been promulgated and known to judiciary.
3. Protection of Property: The government has no
authority to take rightly earned property of any of
his subjects without their consent because it does
not stand for snatching the property but for
preserving that.
4. Legislation as Trust: The legislation was trust for
the nation and hence that could not transferred
to any other authority.
5. Natural Rights: The government could not
abrogate the natural right of the individuals.
6. Promoting ability: on the other hand it should
function for promoting utility.
7. Law of Nature : the legislature must act
according to the laws of the nature.
8. Constitutional Governments: As regards his
concept of constitutional government it is
worthwhile to note that Locke was perhaps the
first thinker who realized that unless rule of man
against man was based on consent it had not
legal justification.
Functions of the government
1. To fix standard of ethics: the government
should attempt creates standards by which
individuals should be in a possession to
decide as to what is right or wrong.
2. Impartial authority to decide disputes: The
governments should provide it’s subjects
with an impartial authority to decide the
disputes arising out of social
misunderstandings in the community.
3. To safe guard people’s interests: Locke
believed that it was the duty of the to safe
guard the interests of it’s individual and
subjects against undue interventions from
Locke on Property Rights
 The right to private property is the first
cornerstone of Locke's political theory.
The theory is rooted in laws of nature that
Locke identifies, which permit individuals
to appropriate, and exercise control rights
over, things in the world, like land and
other material resources. In other words,
Locke's theory is a justificatory account
about the legitimacy of private property
rights
• . God gave the entire earth to humankind

in common. But if it remained common
property, you’d have to get permission
from all the other joint-owners (the entire
human race) before you could use any
object. We’d all starve to death!
God would not have made us with bodily
needs if he didn’t want us to satisfy them.
So it is not God’s will that we starve to
death. So God must intend us to
appropriate, from the commons, goods for
our own private use. God favours private
property
• By mixing our labour with previously un owned objects
and so transforming them, we make them our own.
• This is permissible so long as we don’t make others
worse off by doing so
Q: Doesn’t all appropriation diminish the amount
available to others and so make them worse off?
• A: Since private land is more productive than common
land, appropriation usually makes society as a whole
better off
Q: Why is private land more productive than common
land?
A: People are willing to put more effort into something if
they know they’ll get to reap the benefits(Ancestor of
Rawls’ Second Principle of Justice?)
• An individual creates value through
homesteading previously un owned
resources. The product of is an
extension of the producer and so
cannot be appropriated without
wrongly treating him as an object for
others’ uses. Hence private property
is sacred
Thank You……..

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