John Locke & the

State of Nature
A Founding
Philosophy
Natural Rights
 John Locke - English
Philosopher (1632-
1704)
 Most important
influence on the
Founders of U.S.
 His ideas shaped the Dec.
of Ind., Constitution, Bill
of Rights
 What would life be like
without government?
 Locke said this would be a
“State of Nature.”
 Not a condition where people

live in the wilderness

 Situation where there is no

power acting as a government

 Helps us answer:
 What is human nature?
 What is the purpose of gov’t.

 How do people get the right to

govern?
 How should a gov’t be organized?

 What kinds of gov’t are good/bad

and should be supported/resisted?

 Critical
Thinking
Exercise
What would Locke
say?
 Question #1
 Locke felt that there were rules in a
state of nature that people would follow
through their own conscience
 But not all humans are reasonable/good

 There might be disagreement about the

“laws of nature”
 There would be no gov’t because gov’t
cannot exist until it’s created
 Question # 2
 No one would have the right to
govern you - you would have no
right to govern someone else
 Someone gets the right to

govern only through consent of

others
 If people have not consented,

there is no legitimate gov’t.

 Question 3
 Locke believed in natural rights
- 3 basics that you could defend
if threatened
 Life

 Liberty

 Property
 Question 4
 Locke believed people were
basically good, but self-
interested
 He believed that the
stronger/smarter would try to
take away the natural rights
of the weak
 Question 5
 Weaker/less sophisticated
would protect themselves by
joining together against the
strong
 Question 6
 Peoples rights would be very
insecure
 There would be no laws that
people agreed on
 There would be no
government to enforce the
laws that there were
 Recapping our natural
rights…
 According to Locke:
 Life

 Liberty

 Property
Sound familiar????
 “Parents wonder why the
streams are BITTER, when they
themselves have poisoned the
fountain.”
John Locke
 The Social Contract
 Locke believed that in a state of
nature your rights were always in
jeopardy
 In order to secure rights for all, we
enter into what Locke called the
social contract
 We agree to create and live under a
gov’t with the power to make and
enforce laws
 We give up our right to do
anything we please
 We gain the protection and
security of our natural rights
 Purpose of gov’t is to protect
those rights that the individual
cannot protect in the state of
nature.