Locke’s Treatise: Key Concepts and Axioms
- Natural Rights: Locke believes in inherent human rights, particularly life, liberty, and property.
- State of Nature: The state of nature is a state of freedom and equality, not necessarily brutishness.
- Tabula Rasa: Humans are born as blank slates, and experience shapes their development. Society and governance should be structured to promote positive experiences and education.
- Social Contract: People enter into a social contract, exchanging some freedoms for civil laws and governance.
- Limited Government: Locke emphasizes that governance should be limited, and tyranny is a violation of natural rights. Institutions like separation of powers are crucial.
- Property Rights: Locke sees property as an extension of one’s own labor and thus a natural right. Economic freedom and protections are crucial in Locke’s ideal government.
- Revolution: If a government violates its end of the social contract, the people have the right to rebel.
- Consent of the Governed: Governmental power is legitimate only if it comes from the consent of the individuals it governs.
Locke’s time
- Bubonic plague
- Locke invested in slave trade & American colonies
- Time of political turmoil, monarchical rule