John Locke's Second Treatise Of Government Summary

John Locke, among one of the most important political philosophers, wrote Two Treatises of Government. In it, he defended the claim that men are naturally free and equal. All men have rights including life, liberty, and property, things that are important to civil societies. These rights can be ensured through a civil government or authoritative figure that gives them freedom, tolerance, and property. The State of Nature, a model that Locke follows to understand human nature, justifies peoples rights and how they attain them through a government. The second chapter, “On the State of Nature”, is one of the most important chapters in Locke’s Second Treatise. He puts the thought that we need to understand that we exist in a state of perfect freedom and equality and governed by reason. Locke defines the state of nature on the third page of this book as this,

“To understand political power right. . . we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature. . .

A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal,
Locke is showing the Natural Law which states that men morally participate in acts, or rights, and they have a right to defend their life from invasion. Also, their freedom is equal for all “without subordination or subjection” (3). For Locke, he believes in the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and to seek justice for those who violate it. He says that we all have “a right to punish the transgressors of [the Law of Nature]” (5). Even without a government or an authority, it still permits that all men can act as one and that the state of men can be characterized by tolerance, reason, and