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????
 “The sacred rights of mankind
are written, as with a sun beam
in the whole volume of human
nature, by the Hand of the
Divinity itself, and can never be
erased or obscured by mortal
power.”
Alexander Hamilton
 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 Locked 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.