Review “Second Treatise of Government” in Chapter 6. Please respond to the following:
John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government were written to defend armed resistance to the English king by English subjects in the years preceding the Whig revolution, the Glorious Revolution of 1689 (as it’s called). Involved in plots, Locke fled from England to Holland in 1683 and stayed there until 1689. The
First Treatise is an attack on the theory of absolute monarchy defended by Sir Robert Filmer. The Filmer theory traces the rights of the monarch to the establishment of monarchical power in Adam (the first man of the Bible) by God. This absolute authority to rule then gets passed along down to the present king of
England. So the king is answerable only to God and the subjects are obligated to obey the king’s commands come what may, says Filmer.

* Explain what, according to Locke, gives a person their right to property. As stated in the textbook, " everyman has a property in his own Person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labor of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labor with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state nature placed it in, it hath by this labor something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other men" (p.209, Halbert and Ingulli, 2009). Labor, for Locke, includes picking up acorns from the ground, gathering apples from wild trees, tracking deer in the forest, and catching fish in the ocean; labor ranges from simple acts of appropriation to production involving planning and effort. It is a creative and purposeful act that extends the limits of personality to physical objects previously in the common stock. According to John Locke, the blending of an individual's labor with God's created universe produces private property. Private property results when something has been added by individual effort to transform previously un-owned property. In Locke's view, individuals form societies in order to gain the strength to secure and defend their properties, he follows that the proper end of government is the preservation of property. Locke's main theme was that the ownership of private property is a natural right of every individual and that this right pre-existed government. The inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, included in the Declaration of Independence, are Lockean in nature and must be protected. Without protection of one's private property, other rights would have little meaning. The Lockean approach is rooted in the idea that people own their own labor. Locke has implied that any man who has transformed an un-owned resource owns the transformation that he has created. If a person owns what he has created from an un-owned resource, he logically also owns whatever he or his agent creates from his property which could then be sold for whatever price the market will yield. In other words, the voluntary transfer of justly acquired property is morally proper. * Identify any limitation on the right to own property. In section 31 we find Locke providing a limitation to his property rights. This has commonly been called the spoilage proviso and limits people to take only that which they can use before it spoils (to limit waste). But all land that a man can take and improve with his labor belongs to him alone. That is to say that no one else has equal title to the products or land as they did before someone’s labor was involved. Section 33 contains the second proviso, called the sufficiency proviso. This limits the amount of property anyone can take to only the point where “there [is] still enough, and as good left.” (p.209, Halbert and Ingulli, 2009). Locke requires enough land to go around for everyone. At the point where there is no longer enough land, Locke points out in section 34 that non-owners must labor on owned land to sustain their lives. Section 46 rids Locke of the spoilage proviso, making private property attainable by means of money. The ability to sell a good before it spoils allows anyone to produce more than he can use for himself because money is a lasting object unlike perishable food. Money, Locke argues in section 50, is by a “tacit and voluntary consent” of men away to barter and exchange possessions. When one connects the dots, one will see that property to Locke is a natural right of man. Sustaining oneself is one’s duty to God and a natural right itself, and it is clear that the only way to do this is to exploit the land which God gave humanity in common. When one does this and adds one’s labor to the land owned in common, the product and land is transferred as property to the person doing the work. * Discuss why Locke believes people form government.
According to Locke, a Government existed, among other things, to promote public good, and to protect the life, liberty, and property of its people. For this reason, those who govern must be elected by the society, and the society must hold the power to instate a new Government when necessary. John Locke believed that, because people are good and their natural state is liberty and equality, they would reasonably want to preserve that state. For this purpose, people would consent to live under the umbrella of a government. By living peaceably together, they would preserve their right to freedom and property.
Reference
Halbert, T., & Ingulli E., (2010). Law and Ethics in the Business Environment. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.

Responses:
Professor/Peggy,
Here's a great article I was reading to understand Locke's thoughts and get some clarity - http://coralrosario.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/john-locke-and-the-u-s-constitution/. Locke's philosophy is very much in line with the thoughts of the writer's of our constitution. This is great topic! Alas, it took me so long to read and respond...:(
Thanks,
Priya

Professor/Peggy,
I do have to agree with your comments! I feel that even in the current day and age, we are bound by numerous norms and policies created by politicians many of which are for their own convenience. The common man has minimal to no say in any of these legislations passed out, the wealthy seem to have a pull in many of these decisions (i.e.) how many bills have we not seen swayed due to the influence of a major corporation or a major investor?
As far as the debate about prayer in public schools, I guess there is lot out there to talk about. In my opinion, religion (no matter which one) teaches children good moral values which kids are lacking these days. Here's an interesting article pubished by CNN - http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-03/us/texas.school.prayer_1_graduation-ceremony-appeals-court-emergency-appeal?_s=PM:US which goes to show that there might still be a ray of hope out there.
Thanks,
Priya