Two Treatises of Government

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:28:09 -0500

Summary

Locke’s two most famous political essays are collected here. In the first, he debates the leading theory of monarchical legitimacy. In the second, he casts his own vision of what political legitimacy looks like.

First Treatise (against hereditary monarchy)

Locke’s first treatise is in response to a popular book written by Robert Filmer titled Patriarcha which provides arguments supporting the divine rights of kings. As a modern reader, it is hard not to hear the arguments put forward by Filmer as anything other than attempts to fabricate defenses for an existing system of governance. The basic line of reasoning goes something like God granted Adam dominion over all the world and as such created the blueprint for how governments should be structured. There is then some confused argumentation about how children are born under the dominion of their parents and the way dominion is inherited like property to the first born. In Filmer’s defense, I am hearing these arguments from Locke who clearly thinks they are even more confused than me. Reading argumentation about something that society has largely moved past is not very interesting.

Two_treatises_of_government on George's Blog

Two Treatises of Government