PWM-3

John Locke(1632-1704)

PYQs
1. Comment : “Whoever therefore out of a state of Nature united into a
Commonwealth must be understood to give up all the Power necessary to
the Ends for which they united into Society, to the majority of the
Community.” (Locke) (1997)
2. Comment : “The great and chief and, therefore, of the men uniting into
commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the
preservation of property; to which in the state of nature there are many
things waiting.” (John Locke) (1999)
3. Comment : “The reason why men enter into civil society is the preservation of the property.”
(Locke) (2003/200/20)
4. Comment on: The end of law is not a abolish or restrain but to preserve and enlarge freedom
(Locke).(2004/200/20)
5. “The great and chief aim of men’s uniting, into a Commonwealth and putting themselves
under Government is the preservation of property”. (Locke) (2008 /200/20)
6. ‘Locke is an individualist out and out’. Substantiate this statement.(2012/200/15)
7. Comment on the assertion of Laslett that Filmer and not Hobbes was the main antagonist of
Locke.(2013/200/15)
8. John Locke is the father of liberalism. Explain.(2018/250/20)

Universal Introduction (Locke) - context, concern, methodology, works and significance

• Context : England , ‘Glorious revolution’ (1688)→ peaceful change.
• Concern : Individual > State
• Significance :
o Father Liberalism - limited powers of state
o First exponent of the doctrine of civil society.
o Scholar of capitalist class.
o Absolute right to property→ scholar of ‘possessive individualism’.
• Methodology
o Tradition of social contract.
• Major works - The Two Treatises on Civil Government.
o 1st Treatise
▪ critique of Filmer’s theory → PATRIARCHA (State is a big family of God),
critic of social contract :
• Individual who had not consented…minorities, dissenters, non-voters
(women and children)→unstable.
• succeeding generations.
▪ Locke refute Filmer’s patriarchal theory - Parental authority natural,
Political power artificial ….. State is not a family.
▪ Link : Aristotle: “The authority of masters differs from the authority of
statesman.”
o 2nd Treatise
▪ Theory of government by using social contract.

On Human Nature and SoN

 • ‘Glorious revolution’ (1688)→ balanced view → Hobbes → Every thinker is a child of his time
...
• On SoN - Hobbes – peaceful , people are enjoying natural rights because of the presence of
reason. i.e. the natural law.
• Individualist : self > whole
o “Locke is an individualist out and out.”- Both methodological + normative sense.
o Hobbes - Individual in Locke is more enlightened than individual in Hobbes. Since
individual is more enlightened, Locke creates limited state.
o Natural rights of man.
o Consent as the basis of authority → Government has no original powers.
o Faith in ordinary man → Right to revolt.
o Absolute right over property.
• Hobbes → greatest of all individualist, Locke → individualist out and out → Locke
nowhere talks about absolutism of the state. → “Hobbes begins as an individualist but ends
as absolutist (Macpherson)”.

On Social contract/ Government

• Why contract?
o Reason + passions.
o Absence of common authority to make law, execute law and adjudicate law. In the
state of nature, common authority was absent hence everyone was interpreting the
natural law according to his own preference.
• Two contracts (Hobbes):
o 1st contract – Civil society → formal recognition of fellow men → why second
contract needed? laws of nature → interpretations? →enforce the law and punish?
→ common legislative, executive and judicial powers.
o 2nd contract → common authority → government → People have transferred three
of their natural rights to the government. (Hobbes)
1. Right to make law.
2. Right to execute law.
3. Right to adjudicate law.
• Right to life, liberty and property→ inalienable rights.
• Locke gives the concept of government by consent → majoritarian + representative.
• Government is not a necessity, matter of convenience → Hobbes
• Government is a trust and people are trustees.
• Why would people obey govt? (Hobbes)
• 2 kinds of consent:
o Express or direct – at the time of contract.
o Tacit consent.- define? And how far it was binding? Filmer’s critique of the contract.
• Right to peaceful revolt → freedom of speech and expression.

Locke on law and Liberty

• “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom”
• “No law, no liberty” – order, no arbitrary power.
 • Reason (Natural law) is the ultimate guarantee for the enjoyment of liberty.
• Hobbes.
• Link: Maeneka Gandhi case : Article 21, the concept of DPL is present in the doctrine of PEL.

On Rights
• Type of Rights - Natural , Customary, Religious, Legal
• First: Theory of natural rights -- Natural right→ prior to the government. → Hobbes
• Role of Rights? → limit governmental authority.
• Link :
o Thomas Paine and Jefferson → The Declaration of the American Independence
(1776): ‘with certain inalienable rights’ among which the most sacred is liberty.
o UDHR (1948) - Article 3 - Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

***Locke’s Theory of Property

• Context : Filmer: God had given the earth and its fruits “to Adam and his heirs exclusively”.
• Absolute right to property
• Why? “… labour, the labour of his slave and labour of his horse….” Labour + Earth →
Property
• Origin- Initially property was common→ Industrious, enterprising → lazy, quarrelsome and
day dreamers.
• Role of state?
o “The sole purpose for the formation of commonwealth is the protection of
property.”
o A night watchman i.e. to safeguard the property
• Limitation on state?
o Cannot deprives a person from his absolute right to property → right to revolt
o No taxes without the consent → subverts the ends of the government.
• Limitations on right to property. Three limitations.
▪ Labour limitation
▪ No right to deprive others of their right to property.
▪ No right to spoil property.
• Link :
o Libertarians like Robert Nozick: minimal state as inspiring and right.
• Locke is a scholar of possessive individualism.
• Evaluation
o Macpherson and Marxists : an apologist and a theorist of bourgeois society.
o Foundations of economic justice.

Comparison between Hobbes and Locke.

Hobbes Locke
Man : Passions Passions + reason
SoN: war. Peaceful
Law: Positive. Natural
Liberty : where law is silent No law, no liberty.
Legal Rights Natural Rights
On toleration

• The father of the Enlightenment.

• Freedom of religion : “ …no one listens to the magistrate in the matters of conscience…”
• State to adopt the principle of toleration towards the followers of different religion. (Hobbes :
No religious freedom , state to dictate)
• But state should not tolerate Atheists. State should throw them out.
• “…a society which practised toleration in intellectual and religious matters was the most
desirable order that humankind aspired to achieve…”
• Influence:
o Liberal democracies, separate religion from the political.
• Criticised Filmer’s biblical account of the origins of political power, without abandoning
religious foundations.

As Feminist

• Political role for women, enabling them to enjoy rights and powers. → Aristotle, Plato.
• Grants mothers an equal title with fathers to authority over their children.
• Granted freedom to wives from their husbands, right to property for which she had laboured.
• Marriage = contract and not natural.
• Natural differences irrelevant since women were politically equal
• Inspiration for feminists like Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft : appreciated supremacy
of reason, rejection of patriarchy and political absolutism, and in the importance of nurture
as opposed to nature.
• Criticism
o Husband’s rule over his wife was a non-political form of power→ power of decision
making within the family
o Marriage contract a wife accepted and consented to her domination. …
o → Aristotle
• Carole Pateman : The Sexual Contract : the social contract theory as developed by Hobbes
and Locke did not consider women as persons or citizens
• Carole Hanisch

Universal Conclusion on Locke

• Locke’s emphases on constitutionalism, consent and toleration → modern political theory.

• Locke’s theory represented a fundamental shift : notions of duty and obedience vis-a-vis
their rulers → towards rights and liberty.
• USA = a nation of Lockeian individualism. Locke → America’s philosopher-king: Louis Hartz’s
The Liberal Tradition in America.