POLSCI 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Body Politic, Mattress
Document Summary
If not god"s word, the basis of political power is consent. There is no way of knowing if god appointed one to be the master of them all, besides their own word. The passage is misleading because it appears to affirm a possibility of something that locke has already said would never happen. Locke says god"s power does not have the right to establish a rule. If we"re all equal, then none of us can force anyone else to recognize their authority over us, as superior. It doesn"t give preference to any particular religion. We can believe in (some) god but we can"t looking to (any one) god"s authority to settle the question of who should rule -- religion becomes a private matter, no longer a public matter. All men are in the state of nature till by their own consents they make themselves member of some politic society .
