How and why does Locke explain the creation, value and protection of property?

Authors Avatar

‘The great and chief end... of Mens uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves

under Government, is the preservation of their property’ (Second treatise, para.124). How

and why does Locke explain the creation, value and protection of property?

Locke says that the state has a responsibility to preserve people’s private property. He (1688) says “The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into common-wealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property” (p. 262). The state has to set laws which establish the rights of the people to own property. It has to have judges to decide between disputes. And it has to have people to execute the law once it’s passed. The reason why people join a society is to get this particular protection for their property, or else they would have remained in a state of nature. For the same reason they have to protect it they can’t take it away as well. Since people join a society to preserve their property not to have it taken away. If the state would have the right to take it away it would be as if they wouldn’t have any property at all. Since, Locke (1688) says, “I have truly no property in that, which another can by right take from me, when he pleases, against my consent” (p. 266). People would be a lot better off living in a state of nature where at least, they have a right to try to defend themselves when someone tried to take their property. They would never willingly agree for the state to have the right to take their property whenever they pleased. In order for Locke to come up with his opinions of the role of state in regarding property he assumed a number of things including people have a right to their own preservation, the way to acquire property is through labor in the land, and that land is better acquired than lying not toiled in the common. Locke (1688) says, “that men, being once born, have a right to their preservation” (p. 250). As soon as a person is born he automatically has the right to try to preserve himself by any means possible, as long as he does not infringe on someone else’s property. And that god gave humans the world and everything in it including the fruit it produces, and the animals it feeds. People have a right to all of it to preserve themselves. He (1688) then says that in order to preserve ourselves we need “a means to appropriate them some way or another”( p. 251), and the way to do it is through labor. He (1688) says that “every man has a property in his own person” (p. 251), and therefore the work of his hand belongs to him as well. So by adding labor to property we add something of our own to it the “labour put a distinction between them and common” (Locke, 1688 p. 251). By causing a change in the land with our property we take it out of “the hands of nature” (Locke, 1688 p. 252) and make it our own. He then says that by people acquiring land they are not taking away land from anybody else since there is so much of it. And not only are they are not doing anything wrong they are actually doing a good thing for every one else. Since the land left in the common, land that nobody uses is like wasting. He (1688) says that land that is worked on and some gain comes from it is “ten times more than those which are yielded by an acre of land of an equal richness lying waste in common” (p. 254). When people work on the land, they cause everyone to gain since they can give people product from the land by trading it for other things. In conclusion, the government has to protect people’s property since people have a natural right to own it and that is the reason why they joined the society. That is the only way to have a proper government, a government the people will want to be under.

References Locke, J. (1688). Second Treatise of Government.

Locke begins by saying that God gave the world to mankind. Every feature of the world was “common” to man, meaning that the world belonged to everyone. When God gave the world to man, he also gave man reason to make the best use out of it. “The earth, and all that is therein, is given to men for the support and comfort of their being(Locke, 18).” We have to remember that all these things, such as soil, trees, and fruits,are here for everyone to use, but are of no use unless they are removed from their natural state in some way. How are they removed from their natural state that God created them in? Labour is a property in itself but also leads to the creation of private property. A property is something that someone owns. Locke says that “every man has a property in his own person. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his (Locke,19).” Labour is a property of man, something man owns, and by the means of labour, man is able to remove something out of it’s natural state. When this object is removed out of it’s natural state by labour, it excludes the common right of other men to the object, thus becoming the property of the labourer. From this concept of labour, comes the question of how to measure property. “The measure of property is determined by the extent of man’s labour and conveniences of life (Locke, 22).” God gave us earth, more specifically ground, but without labour. In this case the ground is useless. Man was forced to labour as a means of survival. Without labour, man would not have the essentials, such as food and shelter, which are needed to survive. The outcome of man’s labour is his property. God forced men to labour (or have property),thus creating the condition of life. The rule of propriety states that every man is allowed to posses as many products of nature as he was capable of laboring. If these products perished in his possession before he was able to use them, he would be taking away from others, an action that was punishable. This rule applies to determining the amount of property one can acquire. As the population increased and as property took on value, there was a need for boundaries between the private properties of different owners. “For it is labour indeed that puts the difference of value on every thing (Locke, 25).” What Locke is saying here is that the more labour that is put into harvesting a corn field, the more the corn the proprietor will get out of the land, and the more value the land will have. Locke says “of the products of the earth useful to the life of man nine tenths are the effects of labour (Locke, 25).” In effect, the increase of land meant an increase in the employment of land, which built the foundations for the cities, industry, and government that emerged. Private property led to bartering, usually trading non-perishable items such as money, for perishable items such as fruit. As Locke states it, man is “exceeding the bounds of his just property not lying in the largeness of his possession (Locke,28).” The invention of money, a private property, gave man the opportunity to enlarge his possessions, status, and wealth. Locke’s theory of property emerged in the sixteenth century. We need to examine a scenario to understand how Locke’s theory applies to the nineteenth century. When the Gallup Poll conducts a census, it sends questionnaires to the population that it needs to receive information from. For example, staticians that work for the Gallup Poll are trying to receive information about the lives of working parents. The poll sends questionnaires only to parents that work. When Mr. Jones, CEO president, reads the question “How does working a night shift affect your child’s life?” he is going to interpret it differently then Mrs.Smith, the librarian, when she reads it. Why? Because each person comes from a different background. Society, political events, family life, social life, time period, and many other factors influence the way a person views something. It is merely impossible to find a question that will have the same meaning to each person. How can Locke’s universally known theory be applied to each person? The answer to this question is that Locke’s theory of property can not incorporate each person into it’s meaning. The information that Locke wrote applied to the sixteenth century. This is by no means Locke’s fault because he could not predict the way of life in the nineteenth century. I am sympathetic with Locke’s viewpoint. To an extent I agree with every point he makes. What I do not agree with is the fact that his theory excludescertain people, such as the poor and disabled. God gave the world to mankind for everyone to share. God created the world so that everything, including everyone would be equal. We know that the world was useless without labour. What Locke failed to include in his theory was that certain people such as the disabled may not be able to use their bodies for labour. This means that they are unable to produce their own food, shelter, and other necessities to survive.The outcome of man’s labour is his property.Does this mean that a disabled person can not have the necessities for survival? God forced men to labour(to survive),thus creating the condition of life. If a person is not able to supply physical labour, does this mean he does not have the right to survive? God created the condition of life, thus causing the disabled to be unequal. Locke says, “every man has a property in his own person (Locke,19),”referring to the labour of one’s body. If man does not have labour does he not have property? The same concept applies to people who are poor. Poor people have nothing of value, no goods to trade for land, so how are they supposed to provide for themselves? They could work for others, but what if they have no skill? Man was forced to labour as means of survival. Does being poor take away the right to survive? God gave the world to mankind but he left it in the hands of man to use, distribute,and place value upon. The extent of labour leads to the extent of wealth, which can be traced back to God and his creation (the world). Those who are excluded in the acquisition of property are the misfortunate and also result from God and his creation.“One gave title to the other. So that God, by commanding to subdue, gave authority so far to appropriate: and the condition of human life, which requires labour and materials to work on, necessarily introduces private possessions (Locke,22).”

Join now!

Mathew Jelonkiewicz Answered Question #2 Locke’s Ideas on Property John Locke was considered one of the first modern liberal thinkers of our times. His ideas and theories permeate throughout many of the democratic world’s constitutions. He authored many essays during his lifetime but one of the more famous ones was the Second Treatise on Government, attributed to him only after passing. This writing is concerned with individual man coming together into a political society and outlines the type of government that is needed to help this coming together of people. The Second Treatise of Government has many key elements ...

This is a preview of the whole essay