Second Treatise Of Government

Second Treatise of Government i JOHN LOCKE I Second Treatise of Government Edited, with an Introduction, by C. B. Macpherson Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Indianapolis . Cambridge JOHN LOCKE: 1632-1704 Second Treatise of Government was originally published in 1690 Introduction copyright© 1980 by C. B. Macpherson All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 04 03 16 17 18 19 20 Cover design by Richard L Listenberger Interior design by James N. Rogers For further information please address Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. P.O. Box 44937 Indianapolis, Indiana 46244-0937 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Locke, John, 1632-1704 Second treatise of government Published in the author's Two treatises of government under title: Essay concerning the true original extent and end of civil government. Bibliography: p. 1. Political science—Early works to 1700. 2. Liberty. 3. Toleration. I. Macpherson, Crawford Brough. II. Title. JC153.L85 1980 320'.01 80-15052 ISBN 0-915144-93-X ISBN 0-915144-86-7 (pbk.) CONTENTS Editor's Introduction Bibliography vii xxiii A Note on the Text 1 Title pages of the Two Treatises 1764 Editor's Note 2-3 4 Locke's Preface to the Two Treatises THE SECOND TREATISE Chapter I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX 5 7 7 Of the State of Nature 8 Of the State of War 14 Of Slavery 17 Of Property 18 Of Paternal Power 30 Of Political or Civil Society 42 Of the Beginning of Political Societies 52 Of the Ends of Political Society and Government 65 Of the Forms of a Common-wealth 68 Of the Extent of the Legislative Power 69 Of the Legislative, Executive, and Federative Power of the Common-wealth 75 Of the Subordination of the Powers of the Common-wealth 77 Of Prerogative 83 Of Paternal, Political, and Despotical Power, considered together 88 Of Conquest 91 Of Usurpation 100 Of Tyranny 101 Of the Dissolution of Government 107 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION John Locke (1632-1704) wrote voluminously on subjects as diverse as the theory of knowledge, the reasonableness of Christianity, the case for religious toleration, the theory of money, and moral and political theory. In his own day and in the first half of the eighteenth century his fame rested mainly on his philosophical work: it was as the author of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding that he was so highly esteemed in England and Europe. Later in the eighteenth century his major work in political theory, the Second Treatise of Government, drew level with the Essay or even surpassed it in stature, especially in America where its doctrine of limited government and a right of revolution was widely referred to in the years leading up to the American revolution. Since then the Second Treatise has become a classic in the history of political theory. This seems odd at first sight. The Treatise was, as we shall see, professedly written only to justify a particular constitutional revolution in late seventeenth-century England; it was found useful again in justifying a particular colonial revolution in the late eighteenth century; but neither of those revolutions was in the next century so challenged as to seem in need of such an outdated defence. Locke's cause was decidedly the winner, both in England and America: the issues were settled. So why does his book now rate as a classic? Part of the answer is that the Western liberal constitutional state, whose title-deeds Locke was one of the first to establish, is now under attack from new quarters—from the communist world and the third world, so that the liberal state is thrown back on the defensive and is glad to enlist in its support any plain hard-hitting case in its favour. Nothing could apparently be plainer than