Locke's Second Treatise of Government

B. Book was written to justify 17th Century English revolution, but is used today as defender of Western liberal constitutional state and private property.

A. The basis of good government is the protection of private property and the preservation of the public good, including protection from foreign forces.

B. Man in the state of nature was capable of reason and of knowing the moral law.

1. The natural moral law means that each man can see other men as free and worth respect.

C. Men needed civil society in order to ensure that this freedom and respect would occur, along with the protection of private property.

D. God made man to be in a society, and to give up some freedom, with consent, to the leaders, as long as the majority rule, and the people have the right to change the government if it goes against the common good.

A. Locke's conclusions are reasonable but his premises with respect to the state of nature and private property are merely bold guesses designed to support his conclusions about private property.

This study will provide a summary and critique of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government or Of Civil Government.

This book was "professedly written only to justify a particular constitutional revolution in late seventeenth-century England; it was found useful again in justifying

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ety, to avoid returning to a state of nature in which property is threatened, give up their power to the majority. This consent makes a man a member of society. Locke writes that the purpose of government is protecting the private property which gives men comfort and convenience: "The great and chief end . . . of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property" (Locke 66). Locke goes on to spell out the specific functions and limitations of governmental power. If this set of limits is passed by the government, the people have the right to change the government to restore freedom. He spells out the differences between the three types of power, parental, political and despotical. Finally, Locke goes on to spell out the different types of changes in government which can be brought about by the people when they are dissatisfied with their leaders for having taken too much power or abused their power. He also defines "dissolution of government" and makes it clear that it is not the same thing as dissolution of society. Locke concludes that the people as well as the good government are protected by the civil system he has set up: "If they have set limits to th
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Approximate Word count = 2217
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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