Summary Of John Locke's Second Treatise Of Government

Second Treatise of Government by John Locke focuses on the transformation of society from a state of nature to a civil government. The state of nature according to Locke has perfect freedom and individuals govern by reason, whereas a civil government has an established legislative and executive power that has authority. To understand the Treatise on of the very first chapters, titled “The State of Nature”, discusses how men behave in without the legislative and executive powers, or in a sense how they govern themselves.
This chapter begins with the idea that all men are born in a perfect freedom and on an equal standing, in which no individual is born with a higher advantage compared to that of another. However, some men might gain an advantage
Thus, reason has to be applied, and men most conclude that equality exists because God created all men equal, and thus men should act equal towards one another. If a man has committed a crime against another man’s liberties, live, or possessions, the decision of punishment is enforced by every man. Punishments are decided this way due to the fact that there does not yet exist a government and equality exists thus there is no superior individual to make the choice on behalf of every
When deciding on the punishment, one must not choose a punishment that does not fit the crime. For instance, a death sentence for a punishment should not be applied to an individual who stole bread. The main reason that punishments exists is that the individual decided to break the nature of law, which is an agreement between that individual and God. Since he has broken this pact, he is viewed as no longer being able to obey the laws of nature and thus is considered dangerous to the rest of society. The individual that has committed the offense is punished to make an example out of him so that others do not try to follow and create chaos amongst mankind. To strengthen this argument, Locke reaches out to the opposing side who may view this argument as controversial. He supports this argument by explaining that a sovereign has the right to execute a noncitizen for a crime. However, Locke explains further that those legislatures that made the law that the noncitizen broke, cannot be applied to the noncitizen and thus he cannot be executed. If a society wants power in which their laws can be applied to others, they first must be able to understand why in a state of nature all men have the ability to punish.
Locke brings up another idea based on reparations after a crime is committed. Locke believes that if a man has had a crime committed