John Locke: Property Rights Essay, Research Paper
John Locke: Property Rights
Perhaps one of, if not the, most historically influential political
thinkers of the western world was John Locke. John Locke, the man who initiated
what is now known as British Empiricism, is also considered highly influential
in establishing grounds, theoretically at least, for the constitution of the
United States of America. The basis for understanding Locke is that he sees
all people as having natural God given rights. As God’s creations, this
denotes a certain equality, at least in an abstract sense. This religious back
drop acts as a the foundation for all of Locke’s theories, including his
theories of individuality, private property, and the state. The reader will be
shown how and why people have a natural right to property and the impact this
has on the sovereign, as well as the extent of this impact.
Locke was a micro based ideologist. He believed that humans were
autonomous individuals who, although lived in a social setting, could not be
articulated as a herd or social animal. Locke believed person to stand for,
?… a thinking, intelligent being, that has
reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking
thing in different times and places, which it only does by that consciousness
which is inseparable from thinking.? This ability to reflect, think, and
reason intelligibly is one of the many gifts from God and is that gift which
separates us from the realm of the beast. The ability to reason and reflect,
although universal, acts as an explanation for individuality. All reason and
reflection is based on personal experience and reference. Personal experience
must be completely individual as no one can experience anything quite the same
as another.
This leads to determining why Locke theorized that all humans, speaking
patriarchially with respect to the time ?why all men,? have a natural right to
property. Every man is a creation of God’s, and as such is endowed with certain
individual abilities and characteristics as gifts from God. Not being able to
know God’s exact wishes for man, Locke believed that all men have an obligation
to develop and caress these gifts. In essence, each man was in charge of his own
body and what was done with his body. Of course, for Locke, each man would do
the reasonable thing and develop his natural skills and potentials to the best
of his abilities, in the service of God.
The belief in God given abilities and the obligations that follow are
not totally deterministic. Man, endowed with reason, could choose not to
develop these abilities. Having the ability to choose the development of his
potential, each man is responsible for that potential and consequently is
responsible for his own body. The development, or lack therein, is a
consequence of individual motivation and is manifested through labor.
In keeping with the theory of one’s body is one’s own, a man’s property
can be explained in terms of the quantifying forces of his labors. Physical
labor or exercisation of his mind, to produce fruits for this person’s labor,
is then his own property. Locke believed that one did not need the consent of a
sovereign, as far as property was concerned, because it is the melding of
labor and nature that makes anything owned. Yolton articulates this when he
states, ?(b)y mixing my work, my energy with some object, (nature), I
particulise that object, it’s commonness becomes particular? Locke believed
that as long as there was plenty for others, consent was pointless, irrelevant
and would merely be an overzealous exercision of power. Pointless because as
long as there was more for others in the common store, one was not infringing on
another’s natural rights. Irrelevant because property production or the use of
labor was completely individualistic and one should not be able to control
another’s labor as it is an infringement on their natural rights.
There are however limits, as far as property and labor are concerned.
One limit is that of non destruction. God did not create anything for man to
destroy. The amount produced by any man should be kept in check by his level of
destruction. For example, there is a big difference between the cutting of one
or a few trees and the harvesting of an entire forest. Yolton explicates this
by stating that, ?… specific rights comes in conjunction with this
restriction. Since ?Nothing was made by God for Man to spoil or destroy,’ the
property making function of man’s activities ought to be curbed at the point of
spoilage. If my acquisition spoils, I offend against the law of nature, since I
have, in the beginning, ?no Right, further than’ my use. What is useful and is
used has value and the person who uses them a right to them. The same rules
are cited for land as for the produce of land.?
The making of currency as an unspoilable property and medium for
exchange seems to have by-passed this limit all together. Inequality becomes
rampant and as such an authority is needed to protect a man’s property and the
social peace. With the advent of money as unspoilable property, certain
inequalities amoungst men would develop. Those with less start to feel cheated
and used. This is very dangerous for those with more, because with these
inequalities, comes the danger of theft, or injury to property or body. It is
for this reason that people enter into a social contract and appoint a soveriegn.
The sovereign has the ability to protect those whose property is in danger, and
will do so through the passing and enforcing of laws. In this way not only is a
man’s property protected, but a state of peace is maintained as well.
Locke not only believed in one individual’s right to property, but every
individual’s right to property. Since every person is a creation of God’s, and
it must be God’s wish that we serve him through the abilities that he’s given us,
to interfere with a man and his labor, or the consequence of his labor, that is,
his property, would be to interfere with God’s wishes. It is here that we begin
to see the limits of men as well as the limits of the soveriegn. After all, how
anyone interfere with the wishes of God?
Locke believed that the power for social control must come from the
sovereign. This sovereign is responsible to the will of the people, but has a
protective authority, governing both over land and people. Locke believed that
if a body of people, that is a community of people, chose to live and
interrelate amongst each other, they must choose to live by a greater force,
that is they must enter into a social contract. This force was the power of the
majority manifested through the creation of a sovereign. Problems can arise,
when individuals cannot agree. For this reason there must be a ruler and
government to decide disagreements, make and enforce laws, and govern man.
The enforcement of rules is not as absolute as it may sound. Even with
the existence of a limited monarchy, man retains his individual and God given
rights. As such, the sovereign, had no right to aquire or take away the
property of another. If he did so he would be going against, God, the people,
and all that is natural. The extent of the services of the existing sovereign
is to govern over, protect, and enforce the laws of the people. Locke believed
that the role of the sovereign and his authority is in serving the people and
that there must not be parental, that is absolute authority. Yolton explains
this like so, ?If royal authority is derived from parental authority … there
would be as many kings as fathers… from parental power it necessarily follows
either that that all fathers have royal authority – in which case a
contradiction arises – no one has royal authority.? In this way Locke is seen
as a man who wants to limit the power of the sovereign over the individual.
Locke believed that the sovereign, created out of the need for the protection of
individual rights, that is, out of the need for protection of the privacy of
property, could not manifest itself publicly through excessive social control.
Perhaps Locke’s idea is better explained this way. ?From privacy of possession,
publicity of sovereignty does not follow…`no Man could ever have a just Power
over the life of another, by Right of property in Land or possessions’? This,
of course, would include the man of sovereignty and the men of government.
Property sets the limit of sovereignty, in that no man has just power over
another or another’s property. This right comes directly from God, because it
is a God given right that a man should gain property through labor. This also
sets the tone of the role of government, that of servitude instead of command.
Locke believed that civil society existed to free individuals from the
insecurity of the state of nature. He thought that men united voluntarily in a
concerted effort of preserving and protecting life, liberty, and estate. Here
again we see the importance of property. Government within limits can work
beneficially for all of man kind. This means that a sovereign would be
necessary for the preservation of lives, the promotion of freedom, and the
protection of estate. Locke is quite adamant about the preservation of
individual freedom which Aaron describes as ?need(ing) to be jealously
preserved.?
This right to the property produced through labor is an inalienable
right that each and every individual has. Even the soveriegn has no right to
interfere with or take away a man’s property. This is the true limit of any man
or governing body.
Locke favored a limited monarchy. This is an elected legislative
assembly and a monarch that have the power to direct the commonwealth to
preserve the community and it’s members and their rights. Locke believed that
people were the absolute sovereign, and that if the appointed sovereign abused
his authority the people would have the right to dissolve the government. This
right of the people reinforces the limitations of the sovereign, while enforcing
the accountability of the sovereign. It is in this sense that the community or
the aggregation of individuality, retains power over the sovereign and in
essence limits it’s power. This is the extent of the limitation of authority of
the sovereign. The sovereign is a servant of the people, that has limited power
only as long as the majority allows it to have power. It was Locke’s intent
that the state was made for the individual and that the sovereign be used as a
protective instrument for the good of the individual.
Locke’s ideas of property are based on God given rights. Each person
has been given a body, with certain abilities and potentials, to use by God.
The use of this body is called labor and its product is called property. Since
everyone has a body and a level of potential everyone is capable of producing
property. The purpose of the sovereign is to protect the individuals right to
property and their property. The sovereign is limited in it’s power and
authority and does not have the right to take or interfere with any man’s
property, since to do so would be an interference with the right’s of man as
given by God. It was Locke’s hope that with such an ideology behind a people
and their government that they might attain and retain Locke’s version of the
good life, that is life, liberty, and most importantly estate.
Bibliography:
Aaron, Richard, John Locke, Oxford University Press, Toronto, 1963.
Bowie, James, Twenty Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy, MacMillan
Publishing, New York, 1964.
Locke, John, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Oxford University Press,
London, 1975.
Magill, Frank, Masterpieces of World Philosophy, Harper and Row, New York, 1961.
O’Connor, D.J., John Locke, Pelican Books, London, 1952.
Squadrito, Kathleen, Locke’s Theory of Sensitive Knowledge, University Press of
America, Washington, 1978.
Yolton, J.W., Locke and the Compass of Human Understanding, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1970.
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