John lockein john locke s second treatise, locke stresses the notion that men allow themselves to be governed to insure equality among themselves, and for the protection of their own rights. Locke s main thesis of his article is that people follow the laws of rationality and so a government of much power is unnecessary. Locke believed that even if there were no government to overlook the preservation of the law of nature, men would not act against all rational law just because they could. Obviously john locke x27 s life also influenced his philosophies.lockean thought supports john locke x27 s theories and ideas. The political philosophy of locke x27 s adult years stemmed from the commonly accepted natural law, under which man had natural rights, not given by any ruler. When looking at the declaration of independence and the ideas in it you can clearly see how much john locke influenced thomas jefferson s work. Locke s philosophy on government has helped shape what we stand for today.in the first paragraphs of both works you see similarities about the laws of nature.

Who would carry on designs against the liberties and properties of the subject.ae 157 both thomas jefferson and john locke believe in the same ideas. The importance of property in societytwo different ideas are presented in john locke s, the second treatise on government and karl marx and frederick engel s, the communist manifesto. In the second treatise on government, locke explains that man s state of nature is a law of nature which is generally good. John locke and karl marx differ in their ideas on private property and its relation to liberty and government.john locke believes that the protection of property is of the utmost importance.

And have a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them and punish offendersae 157 civil society. Locke s state of natureae 157 was a state of liberty, and all people were considered equal, but there was no authority to enforce the law which i believe to be greatly problematic. Locke philosophized that a civil state should be formed for three significant reasons an established law was needed, authority. There are two main stumbling blocks to the study of locke's moral philosophy. The first regards the singular lack of attention the subject receives in locke's most important and influential published works not only did locke never publish a work devoted to moral philosophy, but he dedicates little space to its discussion in the works he did publish. The traditional moral concept of natural law arises in locke's two treatises of government 1690 serving as a major plank in his argument regarding the basis for civil law and the protection of individual liberty, but he does not go into any detail regarding how we come to know natural law nor how we might be obligated, or even motivated, to obey it. In his essay concerning human understanding first edition 1690 fourth edition 1700, hereafter referred to as the essay locke spends little time discussing morality, and what he does provide in the way of a moral epistemology seems underdeveloped, offering, at best, the suggestion of what a moral system might look like rather than a fully realized positive moral position.

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This brings us to the second major stumbling block: what locke does provide us by way of moral theory in these works is diffuse, with the air of being what j.b. Schneewind has characterized as ldquo brief, scattered and sometimes puzzling rdquo schneewind 1994, 200. This is not to suggest that locke says nothing specific or concrete about morality. However, two quite distinct positions on morality seem to emerge from locke's works and it is this dichotomous aspect of locke's view that has generated the greatest degree of controversy. The first is a natural law position, which locke refers to in the essay. But which finds its clearest articulation in an early work from the 1660s, entitled essays on the law of nature.

In this work, we find locke espousing a fairly traditional rationalistic natural law position, which consists broadly in the following three propositions: first, that moral rules are founded on divine, universal and absolute laws second, that these divine moral laws are discernible by human reason and third, that by dint of their divine authorship these rules are obligatory and rationally discernible as such. On the other hand, locke also espouses a hedonistic moral theory, in evidence in his early work, but developed most fully in the essay. This latter view holds that all goods and evils reduce to specific kinds of pleasures and pains. The emphasis here is on sanctions, and how rewards and punishments serve to provide morality with its normative force. Both elements find their way into locke's published works, and, as a result, locke seems to be holding what seem to be incommensurable views. The trick for locke scholars has been to figure out how, or even if, they can be made to cohere. The question is not easily settled by looking to locke's unpublished works, either, since locke also seems to hold a natural law view at some times and a hedonistic view at others.

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Schneewind, among others, that locke's attempts at constructing a morality were unsuccessful. Schneewind does not mince words when he writes the following: ldquo locke's failures are sometimes as significant as his successes. Schneewind argues that the two strands of locke's moral theory are irreconcilable, and that this is a fact locke must have realized. This view is indeed an apt representation of the frustration many readers have felt with locke's moral theory.

Locke's eighteenth century apologist, catharine trotter cockburn thought locke provided a promising, but incomplete, starting point for a positive moral system, imploring, in her work ldquo a defense of mr. Locke's essay of human understanding , rdquo i wish, sir, you may only find it enough worth your notice, to incite you to show the world, how far it falls short of doing justice to your principles which you may do without interrupting the great business of your life, by a work, that will be an universal benefit, and which you have given the world some right to exact of you. Who is there so capable of pursuing to a demonstration those reflections on the grounds of morality.

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Which you have already made? cockburn 1702, 36 locke's friend william molyneux similarly implored locke to make good on the promise found in the essay. 1693, molyneux presses locke to work on a moral treatise once he has finished editing the second edition of his essay. Writing as follows: i am very sensible how closely you are engaged, till you have discharged this work off your hands and therefore will not venture, till it be over, to press you again to what you have promis'd in the business of man's life, morality. Locke 1742, 53 several months later, in december of the same year, molyneux concludes a letter by asking locke about what other projects he currently has on the go ldquo amongst which, i hope you will not forget your thoughts on morality rdquo locke 1742, 54. Locke never did produce such a work, and we might well wonder if he himself ever considered the project a ldquo failure rdquo.

There is no doubt that morality was of central importance to locke, a fact we can discern from the essay itself there are two important features of the essay that serve to enlighten us regarding the significance of this work in the development of locke's moral views. First of all, morality seems to have inspired locke to write the essay in the first place. In recounting his original inclination to embark on the project, he recalls a discussion with ldquo five or six friends rdquo , at which they discoursed ldquo on a subject very remote from this rdquo locke 1700, 7. According to locke, the discussion eventually hit a standstill, at which point it was agreed that in order to settle the issue at hand it would first be necessary to, as locke puts it, ldquo examine our own abilities, and see, what objects our understandings were, or were not fitted to deal with rdquo locke 1700, 7. This was, he explains, his first entrance into the problems that inspired the essay itself. But, what is most interesting for our purposes is just what the remote subject was that first got locke and his friends thinking about fundamental questions of epistemology.

James tyrell, one of those who attended that evening, is a source of enlightenment on this matter mdash he later recalled that the discussion concerned morality and revealed religion. But, locke himself refers to the subjects they discussed that fateful evening as lsquo very remote rsquo from the matters of the essay. Identifies morality as a central feature of human intellectual and practical life, which brings us to the second important fact about locke's view of morality. That ldquo morality is the proper science, and business of mankind in general rdquo essay. 4.12.11 these number are, book, chapter and section, respectively, from locke's essay . For a book aiming to set out the limits and extent of human knowledge, this comes as no small claim. We must, locke writes, ldquo know our own strength rdquo essay.

The amount of attention given to the question of morality itself would seem to belie its primacy for locke. The essay is certainly not intended as a work of moral philosophy it is a work of epistemology, laying the foundations for knowledge. However, a very big part of the programme involves identifying what true knowledge is and what it is we as humans can have knowledge about, and morality is accorded a distinctive and fairly exclusive status in locke's epistemology as one of ldquo the sciences capable of demonstration rdquo essay. The only other area of inquiry accorded this status is mathematics clearly, for locke, morality represents a unique and defining aspect of what it means to be human. We have to conclude, then, that the essay is strongly motivated by an interest in establishing the groundwork for moral reasoning. However, while morality clearly has a position of the highest regard in his epistemological system, his promise of a demonstrable moral science is never realized here, or in later works. It seems we can safely say that the subject of morality was a weighty one for locke.