HUM 3306: HISTORY OF IDEAS

Prof. Bruce Harvey

 

JOHN LOCKE'S SECOND TREATISE:

READING TIPS, CHRONOLOGY, AND STUDY QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTERS I-V

 

Locke is a very logical thinker; but sometimes his splitting a main point into subpoints, or his charting out all the nuances of a political idea, will make him sound repetitious.  And sometimes the sentences will seem never to end.  In the past, however, I have found that if you patiently read and re-read, even the most seemingly knotted-up passages make sense, and that much of the prose is actually a pleasure to read once you get the hang of it.

 

Background and Chronology

 

Political theorists of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries often sought to explain and justify political systems (in which there are rulers, judges, written laws, police, and so on) by speculating upon the so-called "state of nature" that hypothetically came before such systems.  "To understand political power right, and derive it from its original," Locke writes, "we must consider, what state all men are naturally in" (paragraph #4).  Thomas Hobbes, a British philosopher living roughly a generation before Locke, in his well-known political treatise, Leviathan (1651), said life in the state of nature was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."  He theorized that we bond together via a social compact or contract, and relinquish all power and freedom into the hands of an absolute monarch, who supposedly will adjudicate disputes and maintain the general welfare of everyone.  Hobbes thought that this ruler must have unrestricted, absolute power, for only thus could order be maintained over our otherwise "brutish" inclinations.  Once established, the sovereignty of the monarch could not be contested (the "leviathan" of the title refers to the power of the monarch).  Sir Robert Filmer, the man Locke is arguing against at the beginning of the Second Treatise, said that kings are divinely appointed because they are Adam's heirs.  Locke and his aristocratic patron, the Earl of Shaftesbury, felt that the British king (Charles II) was tyrannical, abusing the citizens of the kingdom and infringing upon their various rights.

 

You don't need to memorize the dates below, but try to get a sense of the time period in which Locke is writing.

 

1517    Martin Luther's 95 Theses.  Protestant reformation begins.  Increasingly, major thinkers will challenge authority and received traditions in politics, religion, and science.

 

1521    Conquest of Mexico by Cortez.  Part of Locke's book is about property, and it has been used to support imperialistic ideology.

 

1603    Queen Elizabeth dies; James I rules until 1625; Charles I until 1649.           

 

1607    Founding of Jamestown in Virginia.

 

1616    Shakespeare dies.

 

1620    "Pilgrim Fathers," a sect of British Puritans, land at Plymouth. 

 

1632    Locke born in Somerset, England.

 

1637    Descartes' Meditations published (in which appears the most famous line in philosophy, "I think, therefore I am"). 

 

1642    English Civil War begins (country divided between pro-Catholic loyalists to Charles I and Protestant landed nobleman and propertied classes, who feel the king has disregarded their traditional rights and privileges; more democratical, radical groups--the Levellers--are also against the king).

 

1649    Charles I is beheaded; Cromwell, a radical Puritan, leads the parliamentary Commonwealth to 1660.

 

1651    Hobbes' Leviathan (a famous political treatise defending absolute monarchy) published.

 

1652    Locke begins study of philosophy and medicine at Oxford.

 

1660    Restoration of monarchy in England; Charles II rules.

 

1667    Locke enters the Earl of Shaftesbury's service.         

 

1682    After conspiring to rebel against Charles II, Shaftesbury must flee to Holland.

 

1683    Locke also flees to Holland.

 

1685    Charles II, on the throne since 1660, dies; James II (a Catholic) becomes king.

 

1687    Newton's Principia Mathematica.  The Einstein of his age, Newton's theories of matter and motion seem to explain the workings of the universe--an optimistic sense of being able to control nature ensues.  God no longer perceived as routinely intervening in the cosmos; instead, the Deity has created a perfectly rational, harmonious universe (like a super-complex watch), and he is best known by understanding his creation, the natural world.  The latter philosophy is called "Deism" and was what many 18th-century intellectuals (such as B. Franklin) believed.

 

1688    English "Glorious Revolution."  William III (Protestant) usurps the throne, by invitation

of Parliament (from now on, government in Britain is parliamentary, with kings & queens increasingly becoming only symbolic figureheads).

 

1689    Parliament issues Bill of Rights--no law can be suspended by the King.

 

1690    Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding published.  Main theory is that our

minds are "blank slates" when we are born.  There are no inborn ideas (traditional Christian notion of innate depravity, the inheritance of Adam and Eve's sin, loses validity for intellectuals of the period); we gain knowledge only through experience and our environment.  Consequently, education becomes very important--perhaps humankind can be perfected in the progress of time.  Combined with optimism from Newton's scientific ideas, the "Age of Enlightenment" emerges in full swing.  Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and company all read and took Locke to heart.  They are all considered "Enlightenment" thinkers.

 

1690    Two Treatises on Civil Government published, to legitimate the overthrow of James II.

 

1702    William III dies.  Queen Anne reigns to 1714.

 

1704    Locke dies.

 

Study/Review Questions

 

CHAPTER ONE

1-3       In the First Treatise (referred to as the "foregoing discourse" in Chapter 1 of the Second Treatise), Locke argued against the notion of the divine right of kings.  Locke sums up his argument in Chapter I: what does he say about the relationship of present rulers' authority to Adam's rule? 

 

CHAPTER TWO

4-6       Imagine you are the director of a movie-documentary of Locke's treatise: what opening scenes would you shoot to illustrate the "state of nature," as Locke describes it here?  How does he describe the way individuals interact, before governments exist?  Is the "state of nature" lawless?  If it is not lawless, how are its laws known?  Do we have any obligations in the "state of nature"?

 

7          How do you relate Locke's earlier idea about the state of nature being "a state of perfect freedom" (paragraph #4) to the idea here about the need for "all men to be restrained from invading others' rights"?  What does he mean when he writes "the execution of the law of nature is ... put into every man's hands"?

 

11        Why do you think Locke compares murderers and other breakers of the law to animals? 

 

12        According to Locke, in the state of nature, how much can you punish a transgressor of the law?  Imagine you live in the state of nature, without government: you discover your neighbor has stolen your favorite pig.  What do you do?  What would an appropriate punishment be? 

 

13        Does Locke seem to think that everyone having "executive" power in the state of nature would lead to a Mad Max sort of world?  What does Locke refer to when he speaks of the "inconveniences of the state of nature"?  Does Locke seem to envision the state of nature in this section in the same way that he did earlier in Chapter I?

 

CHAPTER THREE

19        Locke says that the state of nature and the state of war are distinct?  On what basis does he make this distinction?  What does he mean in this section when he uses the phrases "common superior" or "common judge"?

20        Locke gives a "great reason for men's putting themselves into society and quitting the state of nature: that is, for creating a community with an explicit government.  What is the reason?

 

CHAPTER FOUR

23        When, according to Locke, is slavery justified?

 

CHAPTER FIVE

25        Initially, in the state of nature, who owns property?  Restate for yourself what Locke proposes to "shew" at the end of this paragraph.

 

26-30   According to Locke, what gives an individual a right to property?  Is this right to property conferred by society-at-large, by government, and if by neither, by what?

 

31        In the state of nature, how much property can you accumulate?  Should you be able to kill, say, three deer if you and your kin could only eat one deer for dinner?

 

32        How does land become private property?

 

33 & 36
Why, initially, would there be little competition for land? 

 

37        Try to envision how a society without money would function.  Why, before the invention of money, was it more or less "impossible for any man" to acquire so much property as to harm his neighbor?

 

37 & 40-44
Write (for yourself) a brief paragraph explaining why mankind as a whole benefits from the labor of each.  This is the key argument for Locke's thesis that the right to keep the fruits of one's labor (property) is for the common benefit, and is not merely one person getting wealthy at the expense of others.  Pay attention to Locke's references to Indians (the inhabitants of the "Americas") in #37 and #41: what point is he making?  What sort of countries do you think would find Locke's ideas in these sections the most useful?

 

46-50   Write (again, for yourself) a brief paragraph describing the effect of money on economic life.  How have we "agreed to a disproportionate and unequal possession of the earth" (#50)?  A final question to ponder: go back to #37 and answer this question: according to Locke, does the invention of money allow us to satisfy an innate acquisitive urge, or does it create greed in the first place?  What do you think Locke would say about the Donald Trumps of the world?