Study Question - Locke – Second Treatise

1: Power and Political Power

What are the rights (one legislative, one executive) of people who hold political power?

2: On the State of Nature

The state of nature is a state of ‘perfect freedom’ and equality. What exactly do this ‘freedom’ and ‘equality’ consist in?

Why should we respect everyone’s life, liberty and possessions, even if they are outside of our (or any) political society? Does the argument work if we don’t believe in the Christian god?

Locke provides (on my count) three arguments for why anyone in a State of Nature can punish those who transgress the Law of Nature. What are they?

In the state of nature we can kill murders like a Lion or Tiger. But there are certain limits on how much we can punish people. What are those limits?

To what problem is civil government the solution, in this chapter? (It is something about judging in my own case…)

Has anyone actually ever been in the State of Nature? Is there anyone still in it now?

Hobbes would say that “a Swiss and an Indian, in the woods of America” couldn’t be bound by a contract, because there would be no commonly recognised superior to hurt them if they violated it. Does Locke agree? Why or why not?

3: Of the State of War

When exactly do two people enter a State of War with each other?

When exactly am I in a State of Nature with someone?

A highwayman stops me and demands my money. Locke thinks I am entitled to kill him. Why?

Who is the common judge between everyone in the State of Nature?

4: Of Slavery

Study Questions – Locke – Second Treatise Danny Hutton Ferris

Grotius thought we could sell ourselves into slavery if we wanted. Does Locke agree? Why or why not?

5: Of Property

When I go out and pick some acorns they become mine. Why?

I am chasing a hare and suddenly you come out and catch it. You don’t hand it over so I kill you. Locke thinks this is permissible by the lights of natural law. Why?

Can I just take as much private property as I want (in the State of Nature)? Why or why not?

Many of the “Nations of the Americans are […] furnished as liberally as any other people, with the materials of Plenty, i.e. a fruitful Soil […] And yet a King of a large and fruitful Territory there feeds, lodges, and is clad worse than a day Labourer in England.” Why?

Why might we say that Locke (like Marx!) has a ‘labour theory of value’?

What does Locke say about money? Where do it get its value from? How does its invention change the economy?

6: Of Paternal Power

According to Locke, your mum also has ‘paternal’ power over you. True or false?

What are parents’ obligations to their children and what are those children’s obligations to their parents? When do those obligations end?

Locke thinks law is a condition of freedom rather than a limitation on it. What is the argument?

7: Of Political or Civil Society

Why do husbands ‘naturally’ control their wives and what are the limits of their power?

Why is absolute monarchy not OK? (Your answer might include the word ‘polecat’.)

What is the fundamental difference between the state of nature and a civil (political) society?

8: Of the Beginning of Political Societies

What are the three reasons people join political societies?

Do we all need to agree to the laws that govern our society? Why or why not?

Locke appears to think that political societies really did historically begin with acts of mutual consenting. But he deals with two major objections to this idea: [1] that there are no examples of this actually happening and [2] that people are always-already born under a government and so don’t’ have the right to form a new one. What are his counter-arguments? (There are many.)

Why does paternal government tend to turn into political government?

Why were paternalistic governments not necessarily very harmful in the past? (I count four or five arguments.) Harder: why have they become more damaging now (after the ‘Golden Age’)?

What kind of actions signal your ‘tacit consent’ to a government? (And does tacitly consenting make you a full member of a political society?)

9: Of the Ends of Political Society and Government

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Study Questions – Locke – Second Treatise Danny Hutton Ferris

What are the two powers we all have in the State of Nature? (Revision / summary of ch. 2)

What are the three reasons the property is threatened in the State of Nature?

10: Of the Forms of a Commonwealth

Rousseau thinks that a governmental form (Monarchy, Democracy, etc.) depends on the form of the executive. Locke disagrees. What does Locke think it depends on and why?

11: Of the Extent of Legislative Power

What are the four limits on the supreme power of the legislature?

12: Of the Legislative, Executive and Federative Power of the Commonwealth

Why should the executive and legislative branches of government be separated?

What is the ‘federative’ branch of government?

13: Of the Subordination of the Powers of the Commonwealth

Locke says that people is the supreme power, that the legislature is the supreme power and that we can sometimes rightly call the executive the supreme power. How are these statements compatible?

14: Of Prerogative

What is ‘prerogative’ and what is the single most important executive prerogative?

Is there anything the people can do when (say) a king abuses their prerogative by (say) refusing to call an assembly of Parliament even though there is a real need for one?

15: Of Paternal, Political and Despotical Power, considered together

What is the goal of all political power?

What is despotical power and what is the only situation in which it is acceptable?

16: Of Conquest

The Ukrainian resistance are fighting a just war against the invading Russians (let’s say). Why does Locke think that, although though they can kill Russian combatants, they cannot take their possessions or do anything to their spouses or children?

The US conquered Iraq recently (let’s say). Why wouldn’t Locke think they should become its rulers?

What are the two rights that everyone (or does he mean every man?) is born with?

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Study Questions – Locke – Second Treatise Danny Hutton Ferris

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Study Questions – Locke – Second Treatise Danny Hutton Ferris

17: Of Usurpation

What is usurpation? When should a usurper be (or not be) obeyed by the population? When does usurpation turn into tyranny?

18: Of Tyranny

What is tyranny?

Is there a right to resist the commands of a prince? If so, what circumstances activate it?

19: Of the Dissolution of Governments

Under which circumstances can a government can be considered ‘dissolved from within’ in a way that means people are free to form a new legislature if they can? (I count about six different scenarios which fall into two broader headings.)

What would Locke’s (four) responses be to someone (e.g. Hobbes) who claimed that his granting of a ‘right of resistance’ would cause widespread governmental instability?

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