Second Treatise of Civil Government. John Locke Chapter 6 ETCI pg Barbara MacKinnon Ethics and Contemporary Issues Professor Douglas Olena

Transcription

1 Second Treatise of Civil Government John Locke Chapter 6 ETCI pg Barbara MacKinnon Ethics and Contemporary Issues Professor Douglas Olena

2 Book II, Chapter II Of The State of Nature To understand political power we must understand that man is in: A state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit. A state of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal.

3 102.4 Human beings are free within the bounds of the law of Nature Human beings are equal because we are born to all the same advantages of Nature, and the use of the same faculties.

4 103.6 This is a state of liberty not license. We are free to do as we wish with ourself and our persons, except that we are not free to destroy ourselves or others. The State of Nature has a Law of Nature to govern it. It teaches us all that we are equal and independent and so may not harm another in his life liberty or possessions.

5 103.6 As long as we are free and not threatened we are obligated to preserve the rest of mankind. We should also promote the preservation of life, liberty, health, limb and goods of another, except when that person has criminally offended.

6 103.7 Everyone has a right to punish transgressors of the law of Nature so that those who might offend would behave differently for fear of punishment. Here Locke assumes the effectiveness of deterrence. If anyone in the state of Nature may punish another for any evil he has done, every one may do so.

7 103.8 In transgressing the law of Nature, the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity, which is the measure God has set to the actions of men for their mutual security. This is the same sense that we get from the Kant movie where it was said that the immoral person treats himself as an exception.

8 There are two rights that are afforded to the magistrate in the legal system where some are chosen to lead others: 1. The right to punish the crime, 2. The right to take reparations for the offense.

9 If the magistrate chooses not to punish the criminal, that doesn t mean that the offended party has no right to reparations.

10 What is the justification for the destruction of human life by legally appointed representatives? Everyone has a right to protect himself. The criminal has renounced reason, the common rule and measure God has given to all mankind, has declared war on all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or tiger, one of those wild savage beasts with whom man can have no society nor security.

11 Should every transgression be punished with death? Each transgression may be punished to that degree, and with so much severity, as will suffice to make it an ill bargain to the offender, give him cause to repent, and terrify others from doing the like. We get from this that justice must match the crime.

12 It is certain there is a law of Nature. It is intelligible and plain to a rational creature. Reason is easier to understand than clever justifications of rules favoring special interests. The laws of the commonwealth are just only so far as they conform to the law of Nature, by which they are to be regulated and interpreted.

13 Locke suggests that it may seem strange that every rational person has executive power of the law of Nature. What about the excess of emotion that twists reason into partiality to oneself and friends, ill nature, passion, cruelty and revenge that the offended party may use toward the accused? Civil government has been put in place to throttle the worst excesses of human nature.

14 Civil government has been given the task of equitably adjudicating the law to ensure the greatest freedom and fairness in treatment of the accuser and accused If the judge makes a mistake, then he is answerable for it to the rest of mankind.

15 The state of Nature between men exists in many places even where there is civil agreement of some kind. We are left to the agreements we make between ourselves and others in the state of nature. ex. Gang warfare and negotiation.