> John Locke
b.1632 - d. 1704
Great Britain
Most famous work: Second Treatise of
Government
• Locke laid out in his Second Treatise a defense of the social
contractʼs validity, even generations after its implementation
• Lockeʼs Four Points of Governmental Theory
• All men are created equal and are born with the inalienable
rights of life, liberty, and the property they acquire by their own
labor
• God gave men reason so that they may know their rights and
devise a government to protect their rights
• So long as a government continues to protect citizensʼ rights,
the citizens owe obedience to that government
• If a government ceases to protect citizensʼ rights, it is their right
and their duty to alter or abolish the old government and create
a new one that will protect their rights
• Locke argued that there exists such a thing as “tacit consent”
• Locke claimed that if a person enjoys the protections and
liberties a state provides, they then owe obedience to that state
for they are giving their consent to the social contract simply by
living there (summary of tacit consent)
• He also argued that tacit consent applied to instances of
inheritance, where a person may live in one country, but own
land in another - that person tacitly agrees to abide by the laws
of the state in which they own the land