Locke, Rousseau, and Mill on Government and the Individual
John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and John Stuart Mill are three of the philosophers who have contributed much to the understanding of the role of government in civil society and the distinction between the rights of the individual and the power of the state. This brief essay will consider the views presented by each of these philosophers.
It should first be noted that Locke (1632-1704) (238) was an English philosopher of the Enlightenment who lived through the Glorious Revolution and saw the curtailment of the powers of the British sovereign. In contrast, Rousseau (1712-1778) lived in the later Enlightenment during the years immediately preceding the French Revolution. Finally, Mill (1806-1873) was a Victorian Englishman who lived in an era in which individualism and individual rights came into even sharper focus than they had during the Enlightenment. Consequently, the views of these thinkers on this topic were very much influenced by the socio-political circumstances in which they lived.
John Locke (242) saw society as entered into voluntarily, arguing that the conjugal bonds between husband and wife were replicated to a degree in political society or in the commonwealth. For Locke (245), men who joined to create a civil society give up much of their autonomy and individual rights as enjoyed in nature. By establishing laws, designating a monarch or some other institution of government, men acquire certain privileges and certain protections under law. Simultaneously, Locke (248) recognized that men in civil society give up a number of important freedoms in return for these benefits. For Locke (248), civil society was necessary in order to ensure that men would not abuse the power they acquired through the possession of property, wealth, or other abilities.
Locke's (244) construction of man as equal to all other men in terms of rights and ...