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Locke - Lecture notes + summarized descriptions and
applications of reading materials
Political Psychology (Stony Brook University)
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Political Climate
● Associated with the Earl of Shaftesbury
○ Leader of political party that opposed monarchy of Charles II
○ Charles II succeeded by his brother James II
○ James II unpopular and deposed by his daughter Mary and her husband William
III of Orange
○ Constitutional changes to limit royal power (Constitutional Monarchy)
● English Bill of Rights
○ Monarch cannot suspend laws passed by Parliament
○ Monarch cannot instate taxes with the grant of Parliament
○ Protestant subjects can bear arms for defense suitable to their conditions (status)
○ Freedom of speech within Parliament
○ No cruel and unusual punishment
● Response to theory of divine right
Similarities to Hobbes
● Governments formed on the basis of a contract
● Features of a society determined by state of nature
● One of the reasons people enter into society is to avoid the state of war
● People are generally equal in the state of nature
○ Because we’re all member of the same species (different from Hobbes’
reasoning)
Differences from Hobbes
● There is injustice without contacts
○ Just because there is no agreement amongst men that does not make all actions
permissible
● The laws of nature impose a moral responsibility on people in the state of nature (more
than one natural right)
○ Right to life, liberty, and property
○ People can be justly punished in the state of nature for violating others’ rights
■ Punished by anybody → morality and enforcement is the
responsibility of everybody
■ Limitations and kinds of punishment
● Reparation: person who has done wrong can repay whom they
have wronged
● Retribution: causing harm to the person who has done wrong;
make an example of the wrongdoer at an appropriate caliber
● State of nature does not always equate to a state of war
○ State of war only develops when one person tries to take the power of another
○ People have the capability to cooperate peacefully without government
● Freedom
○ Slightly limited being you must respect the natural rights of others
■ No absolute liberty
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Do not transfer all freedom when entering into commonwealth
■ Still maintain natural rights
■ Only valid transference of right is that which is consented to by all
■ Cannot forfeit liberty ot life and health
Second Treatise on Government
● Property rights
○ Natural right
○ Property becomes private as a result of the labor required to use it
■ Whatever property is too much for one to maintain and labor himself
cannot belong to him
● Society
○ Everyone consents to be part of a community which entails the obligation to
abide by the determinations of the majority
■ No legitimacy without consent
○ Legitimate government must be result of compact to which people have consent
○ Why enter into a society?
■ Working together with other people means accomplishing greater tasks
■ More secure preservation of property
● Three reasons why property is insecure in state of nature which may limit rights within
this state
○ People are not always apt to follow laws of nature even if they push them upon
others; exceptions of our own cases
○ No impartial, agreed upon judges of disputes
○ Cannot always properly enforce rules
● Commonwealth and legitimate government must:
○ Govern by laws applied by impartial judges
○ Enforces laws which protect society from outside threats
○ Aim must be towards the welfare of all citizens it rules
○ No absolute power
● Absolute monarchy
○ Incompatible with the fundamental goals of government
○ Not a legitimate form of government bc it does not aid in getting out of state of
nature wince monarch is in state of nature with subjects
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