Two Treatises of Civil Government

Description

The two texts in this book exemplify Locke’s radical and revolutionary ideas about moral and the mechanisms that govern the free market. First published by Locke anonymously in 1689, the book saw two more editions, the third version being the closest to meeting Locke’s requirements regarding quality.

As title suggests, the book comprises two essays. In the first treatise, Locke formulates his response to Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, an essay that argued in favor of hereditary, absolute monarchy and in favor of the authority of the fathers over their children. In Locke’s view, life is created by God, which means that authority cannot be transmitted from the father to his descendants and fathers do not have absolute authority over their children. Locke also criticizes the doctrine that attributes divine rights to kings and considers it to be the principal factor that will lead to the collapse of governments.

The Second Treatise comes with even more radical ideas. Locke starts by describing the state of nature, a state in which no human has authority over other human beings. He also discusses phenomena such as slavery and conquest and condemns both as being the results of unjust wars and conflicts. He then moves on to discuss the notion of property as being the value that civil society sets out to protect. The protection of property as the governing principle of society takes Locke’s argument to the discussion of governments elected by the consent of the majority, people’s rights and the notion of the right revolution.

Two Treatises is one of Locke’s most famous and most influential works. Though the period in which it was initially published saw lots of similar discussions including works by Hobbes, these two essays kept influencing political theory and social thinking for centuries and they are important documents with a lot to teach young generations.
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