STATE OF NATURE According To Locke

 STATE OF NATURE According to Locke, what we learn from a study of the state of
nature is that human nature is characterized by freedom, equality, and reason.
Locke begins his liberal theory by examining human nature. He writes of human nature
in reference to what he calls a state of nature.
Individuals living in this state of nature had not been influenced or shaped by laws or
political decrees because governments did not yet exist. Consequently, Locke contends,
we can look to individuals living in this natural state to see what humans are like at their
most natural level. We can look into the state of nature to observe human nature itself.
in the state of nature, there are no natural rulers to whom we owe obedience.
Each person is born equally free and equally in possession of certain natural rights
(natural rights are rights we have just by virtue of being human).
Locke calls these ethical principles the laws of nature. Notice the logic of his
terminology. He has told us that reason is rooted in human nature; therefore, that
which is deducible by reason is natural. It is a reflection of and product of nature.
 Locke comes to a very important conclusion: People are capable of running their own
lives because they have commonsense. Government does not make people rational.
Government does not make people fit for each other’s company. People have within
their own natural makeup the capacity for rational existence.
 Governments are formed because rational people see that they are useful. In the state
of nature, certain annoyances may arise. Individuals pursuing their own preservation
and betterment (consistent with the first law of nature) may act in selfserving ways at
times.
 Government is created when individuals come together and give clear, direct, explicit
consent to the formation of the state. Only those who freely give their direct consent to
the state are considered citizens of this state. That is, no one is forced to leave the state
of nature, so no one’s natural freedom is violated. In creating the state, Locke explains,
citizens give it power, but only limited power. The state has the limited task of making
civil laws (human-made laws), which uphold the laws of nature.
 Locke calls such a state tyrannical, authoritarian, and illegitimate.
Locke has made several points central to classical liberalism. First, he elevates the
individual’s existence above that of the state and suggests that the individual is more
important than the state.
 The individual is the creator of the state and state authority. Without the explicit
consent of individuals, states would not exist. Second, Locke has concluded that the
individual is capable of independence and self-determination.
 Third, Locke has established an ideological basis for believing that progress is possible in
human affairs. Because people are rational, they can take positive steps to improve and
reform their societies.
 Fourth, the logic of Locke’s theoryproposes that state power should be limited. States
make our lives more convenient because they take on the burden of enforcing the laws
of nature.
 states are not in existence to make us moral, make us rational, or tell us how to live.
 Classical liberalism was elaborated on by Adam Smith (1723–1790).
 Capitalism—an economic arrangement in which individuals exchange their private
properties according to their own self-interest with little or no state interference—is
thus justified by Smith.12
 both Smith and Locke agree that because individuals are so very rational, expansive
regulatory governments are unnecessary.
 According to Smith, government’s role should be restricted to providing security and
public services such as public roads, bridges, and schools
 Locke asserts that economic classes of rich and poor will emerge as an economy
develops. Locke attributes this class division to the use of money. He outlines his
argument by explaining that in the early stages of economic development in any
country, individuals tend to barter and exchange perishable objects.
 Some individuals can be expected to take advantage of the imperishable quality of
money and start to store up increasingly large amounts. In this way, classes of rich and
poor begin to appear.
 According to Locke, this emergence of economic inequality does not create injustice or
render the society illegitimate.
 Smith accepts economic inequality. He sees society as making a rational trade-off when
it embraces thecapitalism in which the physician’s and the unskilled laborer’s lives are
so very different.
 Locke and Smith have some important conclusions. classical liberalism’s. First,
economic inequality is not necessarily unjust or unfair. Economic inequality is not a
violation of natural equality. Instead, it arises from the free choices made by rational
individuals sorting out the options available to them.
 Second, individual freedom is not to be sacrificed for the creation of economic equality.
States are not to intrude into the economic interactions of individuals and mandate
equal outcomes in terms of salaries, wages, prices, or property values. States are not to
become “despotical” in order to give people equal incomes.

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How does Locke view human nature and the state of nature?

What are the main points of classical liberalism according to Locke?

 STATE OF NATURE According to Locke, what we learn from a study of the state of

nature is that human nature is characterized by freedom, equality, and reason.

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