Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Friday, 20/03/2020

Continuing John Lock…

Views on State, Law and the Natural Rights

 Natural Law constitutes an integral part of Locke's moral and political theory. It is central
to his conception of the state of nature as well as of civil society. The state of nature, as
we know, is the stock-in-trade of all contract theories of the state. It is conceived as a
state prior to the establishment of political society.
 In Locke's version it is pre-political, though not pre-social, for men are essentially social
by nature.
 The state of nature, far from being a war of all is a state of "peace, goodwill, mutual
assistance and self-preservation." It has law of nature to govern it.
 In the state of nature men have natural right to life, liberty and property. These rights are
inalienable and inviolable for they are derived from the Law of Nature which is God's
reason.
 In the state of nature men have natural rightto life, liberty and property. These rights are
inalienable and inviolable for they are derivedfrom the Law of Nature which is God's
reason.
 Everyone is bound by reason not only topreserve oneself but to preserve all mankind,
insofar as his ow11 preservation does not come inconflict with it. Again, men are free
and equal and there is no commonly acknowledgedsuperior whose orders they are
obliged to obey. Everybody is the judge of his own actions.
 But though the natural condition is a state of liberty, it is not a state of license.
 Nobody has a right to destroy oneself and destroy the life of any other men,"but where
some nobler usethan its bare preservation calls for it."
 Because there is no common judge to punish theviolation of natural law in the state of
nature, every individual is his own judge and has theexecutive power of punishing the
violators of the law of nature.
 There are three lacunas or inconveniences' in the state of nature:
1. Lack of a legislature authority to declare law.
2. Lack of an impartial judge to decide cases of violation of law.
3. Lack of an impersonal executioner of the law.
 Therefore, the state of nature, while it is not a state of war, is also not an idylliccondition
and, therefore, it has to be superseded sooner or later. Conflicts and uncertainties are
bound to arise on account of the selfish tendencies in human nature. The state of nature is
always in danger of being transformed into a state of war.
  The natural law sanctions the rights to life, liberty and property and limits them. The
creation of state and civil society is necessary to protect and enhance these rights.
 The end of law is not to abolish or to restrain,but to preserve or enlarge freedom, for in all
the states of created beings, where there is no law, there is no freedom.
 Right to property is intimately connected to the rights of life and liberty. Man uses his
reason to mix his labor with the natural resources to make property.
 Property: In the beginning, all things were held in common,But common ownership is not
sufficient to provide men with mans of life and satisfy their needs. Man mix his labor
with the resources provided by nature to enable him to makeuse of them in a more
efficacious and profitable way. Since man owns his own person, his bodyand limbs, the
object with which he mixes his labor becomes his own property by right.
 Thisis the origin of the famous labor theory of value common to both in the classical and
the Marxianeconomics.
 Locke does not believe that man has an unlimited right of appropriation. There are three
important limitations on the ownership of property:
1. Labor Limitation: isthat, one can appropriate only that much of common
resources with which he has mixed his labor.
2. Sufficiency Limitation: that a man should appropriate only asmuch as is required
by him and leave "enough and as good for others."
3. Spoilage limitation: Requires that a man should acquire a thing only if he can
makegood use of it, since nothing was made by God for man to spoil or destroy. If
one takes more, he "invades his neighbor's share" which is prohibited by the law
of nature.
 Since men are by nature, free, equal and independent, no one can be subjected to
politicalpower of another without his own consent. Thus common consent is required to
form civilsociety after which a government or legislative has to be established to execute
natural law.
 This authority or the legislative is the supreme authority. Besides this, there are two other
powers of the commonwealth, the executive (includes judicial power) and the federative
concerned with foreign affairs. The executive is answerable to the legislative.
 The legislativecannot rule by arbitrary decrees but only through promulgated and
established laws. Onsovereignty, Locke states that behind the authority of the legislature,
there is an ultimatesovereignty of the people which was later termed as popular
sovereignty.

Note: Please consult the reading material sent to your mail inboxes.This lecture shall be
consulted along with the recommended book chapter Page No.: 189-212 (A History of Political
Thought: Plato to Marx)