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Submitted by wsvierco on April 16, 2008
Category: Philosophy
Words: 1316 | Pages: 6
Views: 105
Popularity Rank: 88,139
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In John Locke’s “An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government” many interesting ideas regarding the relationship between the individual and society are developed. The assumption that Locke starts with as the first step into developing his argument, is that all men are born in “a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and personas as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature” .
It is important to stress that although this stage is one of complete individual liberty, it is restricted regarding society as a whole. Ruled by the law of nature, an individual must seek his self preservation, avoiding however any kind of invasion to the rights of others. This is the key principle, according to Locke, that governs every reprimand or punishment that can be taken upon a transgressor. Empowering the individual to take drastic measures to ensure his individual rights, transgressions of such a nature are to be considered as a trespass against the whole species as well as its peace ands safety. The individual is thus empowered to restrain and/or destroy things noxious to himself and society, giving him the right to punish the offender, and be executioner of the law of nature. It is this principle that actually lays the foundation of the conception that John Locke has on the nature of Civil Government. For he states that it is the collective renouncing of this absolute, individualistic natural power intrinsic in each individual, that creates a civil society: “Wherever, therefore, any number of men so unite into one society, as to quit everyone his executive power of the law of nature, and to resign it to the public, there, and there only, is a political civil society” . This is actually how Locke perceives the apparently impossible transition between a fully individualistic state of law into an unexceptional collective one: “And thus every man, by consenting with others...
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