John Locke
- Intro: known as the “father of liberalism.” He has given theory of natural rights, government by consent and toleration.
- context: had witnessed the glorious revolution of 1688 wherein peaceful transfer of power from monarchy to parliament had taken place.
- His ideas:
- Robert Filmer
- In his first book ,Locke criticised Filmer’s patriarchy for giving divine rights theory which said state is created by god and king is the representative of god on earth and hence enjoys absolute authority. Filmer was against social contract theory. Locke replaced it with natural rights of man and said state is a creation of man and it should not be worshiped but help man in realizing a good life( concept of service state).
- gives theory of limited state, hence in contravention to Plato, Rousseau, Hobbes who give absolute powers to state.
- Says govt does not has original powers but only delegated powers
- unlike Hobbes, for Locke man has both reason and passion, but in a balanced state. Says even in a state of nature man does not harms the other as he is reasonable enough to understand that anarchy is for his own disadvantage . This inspired MN Roy who said that man develops morality to realize harmonious and mutually beneficial social relationships.
- Locke rejects Socrates’ view that soul is the guide to lead a good life. He says mind is like ‘tabula rasa” , i.e. a clean slate and humans learn from their experiences .
- Said state Should tolerate all religions as man does not listen to magistrate in the matters of religion.
- His work “the second treatise” he gives the concept of limited and constitutional govt.
- Gives enlightened view of self interest of man. Says man understands that peace and tranquility are for his own benefit.
- His first contract creates civil society and second creates civil govt. And people only transfer three rights to state: make law,execute and adjudicate law, rest people have all rights to them. No original powers but only delegated powers. Govt is a trust and people are trustees
- 3 inalienable rights of man (life,liberty and property)given by nature and hence state can't take them away but only protect them. These are fundamental to man’s existence.
- says creation of state is not a necessity but a matter of convenience .
- Scholar of the capitalist class as he is the first scholar to give justification for absolute right to property.
- Has given theory of consent that is a govt rules by the consent of the people. Whatever law it makes must be based on consent of the people.
- Gives right to revolt against the state. Hobbes just gives rights to resent in case of breach of social contract.
- Locke on property-
- “ sole purpose as to why people have created the Commonwealth is protection of property“ - Locke
- Scholar of possessive individualism
- His thoughts are inspired by Aristotle's thoughts on property who said property is a source of inspiration for man.Said property is part of man's labor and labor is part of man's personality and hence both are inalienable.
- Locke's three limits on man’s right to property:
- Property should be a product of labour
- everyone should have equal right to property
- property is sacred and hence must not be spoiled.
- Criticism:
- by Marxists for vulgar defence of right to property.
- Conclusion: Locke’s views on liberalism and democracy inspired scholars like Hannah Ardent on civil republicanism and John Rawls for his theory of justice.