JOHN

LOCKE
WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT
PRESENTED BY MUHAMMAD HAROON
 Epistemology,
Paternal authority Freedom and
empiricism and
and political equality in state of
John Locke’ idea
power nature
of tabula rasa

Outline of Private property in Labour theory of Civil /political

presentation state of nature private property society

Limits on
Right to resistance criticism
governments
  John Locke (1632-1704), one of the
founders of British Empiricism, is
famous for insisting that all our ideas

Epistemology, come from experience.

 The great divide in Early Modern
empiricism and epistemology is rationalism versus
empiricism.

John Locke’ idea of  The Continental Rationalists believe

that we are born with innate ideas or
tabula rasa innate knowledge, and they emphasize
what we can know through reasoning.
 Locke and other British Empiricists
believe that all our ideas come from
experience, and they are more skeptical
about what reason can tell us about the
world; instead, they think we must rely
on experience and empirical
observation.
  Lock's empiricism can be seen as a step
forward in the development of the modern
scientific worldview. Modern science bases
its conclusions on empirical observation
and always remains open to rejecting or
revising a scientific theory based on
further observations.

Cont.…..  Locke would have us do the same. He

argues that the only way of learning about
the natural world is to rely on experience
and, further, that any general conclusions
we draw from our limited observations
will be uncertain.
 As an enthusiastic supporter of the
scientific revolution, Locke and his
empiricist epistemology can be seen as
part of the same broader movement
toward relying on empirical evidence.
 Mind

John Locke rejects the idea of tabula rasa

innate ideas.
blank piece of paper

Tabula rasa

All our ideas and Two fountain of

knowledge comes from knowledge are Sensation
experience and reflection
Tabula rasa
• A proponent of the school of
empiricism.
• Gives the analogy of a man to
blank tablet or tabula rasa .
• There is nothing in mind except
first in senses.(john Locke)
• Innate ideas : an allegedly
inborn ideas in the human mind,
as contrast to those received or
compiled through experience.
Two treatises of
government
 • In Patiarcha, Filmer justified the
absolute power of contemporary
kings as a paternal inheritance
from Adam, the father of all
mankind.
• Locke's less read 'First Treatise' is a
Cont…. rebuttal of Filmer's arguments
about a king's 'father-right over his
people. Having shown how Filmer's
theory of the justification of
political authority was erroneous.
• Locke proceeds, in 'Second
Treatise', to construct his own
theory of legitimate political
authority."
 Patriarcha argued that the authority of
kings is the authority of fathers, handed
down from Adam, the father of us all.
Where it is not restricted by positive law,
itself the will of a monarch, it is absolute,
arbitrary, and bequeathable.“
Locke wanted to show that this conception
of the divine rights of Kings was neither
supported by religion nor by reason.

Cont.…. Filmer's defence of absolute monarchy

rested on the thought that this power
descended by inheritance from father to
son, so that on his father's death the oldest
son moved from subjection to his father's
absolute and arbitrary power to exercising
that power himself. This power was
proprietary and patriarchal; God gave the
earth and everything in it to Adam.
 According to Locke, state of nature is a social
state and governed by natural law.
Locke describes the state of nature as a
condition where individuals have perfect
freedom and equality. Men are born free and
equal, neither possessing authority over
anyone else nor owing allegiance to anyone
Freedom and else.
 This means that "political arrangements are
equality in State artifices constructed by human beings for
human purposes, and that the rights and
0f nature duties they bring with them must be justified
by those purposes."
While "many morally important relationships
do not depend on agreement or convention,
political relationships do." Political relations
are not like relations of children to parents or
slaves to masters.
 • Locke argues that the state of nature is a state
of liberty, but it is not a state of license. There
is a "Law of Nature" that governs the state of
nature, which everyone is obliged to follow.
• We are social creatures, designed to flourish in
open and friendly relations with others;
generally, we flourish when other people's
well-being is an important part of our own."

Cont.…
• Locke suggests that even in the state of nature,
where individuals are free and equal,
institutions like the family and society
naturally arise. Because most people follow
the Law of Nature, the state of nature is
characterized by peace, goodwill, mutual
assistance, and preservation.
 • God has equipped us with skills and talents
and given us a world of resources on which
to employ them, in gratitude to God and for
the improvement of the human condition.
• We are happiest when we live in a non-
violent, law-abiding society where work is
encouraged and rewarded.
• God has made us with the reason for the
purpose that we may use our reason to
Cont.… satisfy our lawful appetites and flourish.
• God has created all of us on the same terms,
he must intend that all of us promote the
good of everyone.
• God created natural law. He has made us
sociable, moral, reasonable, and our long-
term welfare includes doing our duty
according to the rules created by God.
  Locke's ideas are deeply rooted in his
Christian theology. He believes that all
human beings are created by God and are
therefore God's creatures, made to serve
His purposes. Because of this, humans
have a duty to preserve themselves and
others, if it doesn't conflict with their own
self-preservation.
Cont.…  For Locke, self-preservation is not just a
right, but a duty owed to God. This duty
implies that individuals do not have the
right to destroy themselves (e.g., through
suicide) because they belong to God.
 Similarly, Locke argues that people cannot
consent to their own enslavement because
slavery is against the principle of self-
preservation, which is a duty to God.
  According to Locke, while God provided
nature as a shared resource, he endowed each
individual with ownership of their own body
and the faculties it possesses, including the
ability to work or labor.
 Locke argues that when an individual uses
their labor to alter or improve a natural
resource, such as picking an apple from a tree,
Private property they are mixing their personal effort with that
resource.
in the state of  while nature was initially common, private
property arises through the personal
nature investment of labor.
 God gave it [the world] to the use of the
industrious and rational (and labour was to be
his title to it) not to the fancy or covetousness
of the quarrelsome and contentious.
 Labor Limitation: One can only
acquire as much property as one
can make use of through their
labor.
Limitations of Spoilage Limitation: Property
should not be acquired in excess to
property the point where it spoils or goes to
acquisition waste.
Sufficiency Limitation: There
should be "enough, and as good"
left for others
Cont….
Labor Limitation: The labor limitation falls away because Locke argues
that the labor of a servant belongs to the employer. This means that
someone can buy labor power and use it to acquire large amounts of
property, beyond what they could personally labor for.

Spoilage Limitation: The spoilage limitation is removed with the

invention of money. Since money doesn't spoil, one can accumulate wealth
in the form of money without worrying about it going to waste.

Productivity of Labor: the value of labor is much greater than the value
of land in production. labor contributes 90% of the value, while land only
contributes 10%. This justification allows for the accumulation of large
amounts of property, as labor is seen as adding value and increasing the
wealth of mankind.
Cont….

Inequality of Wealth: Locke's theory justifies the emergence of

significant inequalities in wealth. As people accumulate more
property through the purchase of labor and the use of money,
disparities in wealth naturally arise. This means that Locke's idea of
equality in the state of nature doesn't extend to economic equality.

Instead, Locke is referring to *political equality* when he speaks of

equality in the state of nature. Political equality means that all
individuals have the same natural freedom and are not subject to
the will or authority of others. However, this doesn't mean
everyone is economically equal
 Absence of an Impartial
Lack of Established Laws: In the Judge: There is no known,
state of nature, there is no formal, impartial authority to resolve
established law to govern behavior. disputes fairly. In the state of
Natural law exists but lacks formal nature, individuals are judges of
codification and enforcement. their own cases, leading to
potential biases and conflicts of
interest.

Potential Influence of
Wealth Disparities: While
Locke does not explicitly
Inconveniences No Power to Enforce Judgments:
Even if disputes are settled, there is
mention economic disparities
as a major factor, it can be
in the State of no power to enforce or execute
judgments effectively. This lack of
inferred that inequalities in
wealth might also contribute to
Nature enforcement can lead to continued
disputes and instability.
the perceived inconveniences in
the state of nature, leading to a
desire for a more structured
society.
 Social Contract: To address these inconveniences, individuals
agree to enter a social contract. This is an implicit agreement
where they collectively decide to form a government and
establish a civil or political society.
when a state is created, rulers acquire no rights that do not

Social already exist in the law of nature. The people cannot grant a
ruler powers they did not formerly possess themselves."

contract
"Since the law of nature gives nobody an absolute and
arbitrary power over his own life and liberty, let alone
anyone else's, no government possesses absolute and
arbitrary power over its subjects."
 • Filmer and other 'natural subjection' theorists
believed that political power naturally and
originally resided in monarchs. According to
them, all lesser political bodies and citizens
were naturally subject to the monarch's
authority.
• The 'natural freedom' theorists believed that
people were naturally free, meaning they
Other thinker were not inherently subject to the will of
others. However, even though these
views on individuals had the right to self-defence, they
did not possess political power, such as the
political power right to make or enforce laws.
• Grotius, for instance, argued that political
power did not belong to individuals but arose
at the moment a government was constituted,
meaning it was inherent to the government
and not something transferred by the people.
 • Locke argued that political power is a
natural property of individuals. In his
view, individuals are capable of
exercising political power and have
both the duty and the right to do so.
• This claim by Locke was significant
because it positioned political power
originally in the hands of individuals,
not in a monarch or a government.
According to Locke, individuals could
Locke's View consent to transfer this power to a
government, which marked a major
on Political innovation in early modern political
thought
Power: • Political power exists to secure men's
"property," by which he means their
"lives, liberties and estates.
 First, They are to govern by
promulgated established laws, Secondly, These laws also
not to be varied cases, but to ought to be designed for no
have one rule for rich and poor, other end ultimately, but the
for the favourite al court, and good of the people.
the countryman at plough.

Powers of
legislature
Thirdly, They must not raise taxes on the
property of the people, without the
consent of the people, given by them- Fourthly, The legislative
selves, or their deputies. And this properly neither must nor can transfer
concerns only such governments where the power of making laws to
the legislative is always in being, or at
anybody else, or place it
least where the people have not reserved
any part of the legislative to deputies, to anywhere, but where the
be from time to time chosen by people have
themselves.
Right to revolution

Right to Resist Against Government as the Source of

Oppressive Government: Locke Disorder: it is not the people's
argues that when a government or ruler resistance that causes disorder, but
acts against the interests of the people, rather the government's illegal and
particularly by failing to preserve their arbitrary actions that put it in a "state of
life, liberty, and property, the people war" with its own people. In this sense,
have the right to resist or rebel. This the government or ruler who acts
resistance is not just a response to minor tyrannically is responsible for any
grievances but to serious and resulting anarchy, not the people who
widespread abuses by the government. are defending their rights.
 Gradual Escalation Distinction Between Reversion of
to Resistance: Dissolution of Power to the
Locke emphasizes Government and
Society: Locke makes People: According
that people are to Locke, when the
an important
generally reluctant distinction between government
to rebel and prefer the dissolution of breaches the trust
to address their government and the placed in it by the
grievances through dissolution of society. people , it forfeits
Cont.….legal means first.
rebellion is a last
When a government
betrays the trust of its authority. The
power then
resort, not a first the people by
reaction, and overstepping its reverts back to the
occurs only when authority and people, who have
violating their rights, the right to
the "mischief" or the government is
harm caused by the reclaim their
considered dissolved.
rulers is However, this does original liberty
widespread and not mean that society and form a new
undeniable. itself falls apart. government.
 There is a twofold society, of which almost all
men in the world are members, and that from
the twofold concernment they must attain a
twofold happiness; viz. that of this world and
that of the other.“
Anyone may join whatever church he or she
Essay on chooses and may worship God however seems
best; the state needs to take no interest in
toleration these decisions.“

A church is a voluntary association of like-

minded persons who wish to give a common,
public expression to their desire to honour God
and thank him for his blessings." It is up to God
to punish us for offences against him.
End
THANKS ANY QUESTION