John Locke On The Limits of Liberty & Property

Locke's understanding of the limits of property focus on the limited needs of the individual and his family, and his understanding of the limits of liberty focus on allowing the individual the same essential liberty he enjoyed in the state of nature, reduced slightly by laws which, in return, guarantee the safety and security of each individual and his property.

The limits of liberty in Locke's understanding are defined by the rights of every individual and the protection of those rights in both the state of nature and in a civil society. The individual is free to do what he will as long as he doesn't do damage to another person's life or property. This complete liberty springs from Locke's understanding of the state of nature:

To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider what state men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature (339-340).

The "law of nature" is accessible to all men, even in the state of nature, through the use of their reason, which informs them of this "perfect freedom," which yet has its

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e of nature but human beings fail to follow their reason, which Locke actually equates with that natural law (341). The basis of law is God who places the knowledge of law in men even in the state of nature, and in the civil government as well: God hath certainly appointed government to restrain the partiality and violence of men. . . . Civil government is the proper remedy for the inconveniences of the state of nature (345). Therefore, Locke would establish a relatively democratic government which gives the people legal protection and security for their lives and property which they did not have in the state of nature. Locke's understanding of the limits of property are certainly reasonable, again, as long as that understanding remains in the realms of the theoretical and ideal. Locke argues that there are limits to property in both the state of nature and the civil society, and these limits are based on the needs of the property-holder. Locke here demonstrates either a naive or a misleading conception of human beings and their relationship to property: What reason could anyone have there to enlarge his possessions beyond the use of his family and a plentiful supply to its consumption, either in what their own industry produc
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