POLI 231 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Robert Filmer, Labour Power, John Stuart Mill
17 May 2018
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Lecture 10 – 8 February 2018
Completing Locke:
• Locke thought a constitutional state was ideal, and opposed absolutism
• Paragraph 140: is a class state acceptable according to his doctrine?
• In his time, Locke was not seen as defending the wealthy landowners; they disliked his
ideas
• He is sometimes called the Father of Modern Socialism
Different interpretations of his ideas:
• 20th c: ideas seen as corresponding to liberalism
• With a new wave of theorists, Macpherson called him anti-liberal, and capitalist
• Later, he was seen as opting for government intervention
- Interpretations are often used to defend/ justify contemporary events
- We must try to understand the meaning Locke tried to convey with regard to his own
time, and only then can we apply his work to the contemporary
Property:
• Locke doesn’t see common and private property as mutually exclusive
• First Treaties: Property does not give one more jurisdiction over another. His critique
focused on Robert Filmer, who believed in the monarch’s divine right. Locke says there
is no connection between political power and property
• Property: the liberty to use X for the satisfaction of needs and requirements
- A body can be property
In opposition to Robert Filmer, Locke says that God gave the earth to all humans, not just Adam.
Monarchs, considered to have descended from Adam, do not have greater rights than other
individuals. The right to property is a right that all people have.
Paragraph 25: The right to preservation and subsistence
• By virtue of being born, we may take what we need from nature to subsist
• The world belongs to everyone
• Property right: a bundle of rights that say we may use things for a specific purpose to
preserve the self and mankind
Indeterminacy: What does one person have specifically?
• Problem of individuation/ distribution
• Private property is about the individuation of a common property
Locke says that if everyone has a right to property, no one person can have everything, as others
would not be able to subsist. These are natural, internal limits.
• There can be exclusionary property rights, but these are embedded in the larger picture
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
In his time, locke was not seen as defending the wealthy landowners; they disliked his ideas: he is sometimes called the father of modern socialism. Different interpretations of his ideas: 20th c: ideas seen as corresponding to liberalism, with a new wave of theorists, macpherson called him anti-liberal, and capitalist, later, he was seen as opting for government intervention. Interpretations are often used to defend/ justify contemporary events. We must try to understand the meaning locke tried to convey with regard to his own time, and only then can we apply his work to the contemporary. Property: locke doesn"t see common and private property as mutually exclusive, first treaties: property does not give one more jurisdiction over another. His critique focused on robert filmer, who believed in the monarch"s divine right. Locke says there is no connection between political power and property: property: the liberty to use x for the satisfaction of needs and requirements.
