John Locke’s State of Nature

Some differences from Hobbes Equality in nature is not mere equality of faculty, but a moral equality grounded in our common origins as God’s creation. We are duty bound (even prior to the forming of a state) to support the survival and flourishing of all mankind and to avoid harming others. Natural abundance of land and resources.

In the State of Nature, people are… “[F]ree to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit…” (p. 169)* “[E]qual one amongst another without subordination…” (p. 169) *All quotes taken from An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government

Natural Law “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone; and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that, being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” (p. 170)

Duty and Common Origin in God’s Creation All people are the product of God’s creation. All people are the “property” of God. No person has a natural claim to superiority. No person has a natural right to harm others. No person has a natural right to harm him/herself.

Natural Law Origins in Aristotle (ancient); Thomas Aquinas (Medieval) Contemporary proponents include Martin Luther King Jr. “A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.” (King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail)

Fundamental principle of Natural Law “Everyone, as he is bound to preserve himself, and not to quit his station willfully, so, by the like reason, when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and not, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another.” (p. 170)

Universal right to Punish “[T]he execution of the law of nature is in that state put into every man’s hand, whereby everyone has a right to punish the transgressors of that law to such a degress as may hinder its violation.” (p. 171)

Proportionate Justice: Retribution and Deterrence Punishment is justified “only to retribute to him so far as calm reason and conscience dictate what is proportionate to his transgression, which is so much as may serve for reparation and restraint.” (p. 171)

Bias and the need for Civil Government “[I]t is unreasonable for men to be judges in their own cases, that self-love will make men partial to themselves and their friends. And on the other side, that ill-nature, passion, and revenge will carry them too far in punishing others…I easily grant that civil government is the proper remedy for the inconveniences of the state f nature…” (p. 173)

Objection to Monarchy “[A]bsolute monarchs are but men, and if government is to be the remedy of those evils which necessarily follow from men’s being judges in their own cases, and the state of nature is therefore not to be endured, I desire to know what kind of government that is, and how much better it is than the state of nature, where one man commanding a multitude, has the liberty to be judge in his own case, and may do to all his subjects whatever he pleases…” (p. 174)

The Right of Revolution “And if he that judges, judges amiss in his own or any other case, he is answerable for it to the rest of mankind.” (p. 174)

Consent and the origin of political society “I moreover affirm that all men are naturally in [the state of nature] and remain so, till by their own consent they make themselves members of some politic society…” (p. 175)