- 01Preface: Locke’s defense of the surviving treatise
- 01Book II
Second Treatise of Government
Natural rights, property, and legitimate government.
21Chapters
69Lessons
141Topics
Certificate of completion included
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
Skills this course leaves you with.
- Explain Locke’s view of the state of nature and natural law
- Describe the origins and limits of legitimate political authority
- Analyze Locke’s account of property and its relation to labor
- Distinguish between state of war, slavery, and civil society
- Summarize the purpose of government and the rights it must protect
- Interpret Locke’s arguments for consent, representation, and legislative power
Curriculum
The full table of contents.
Every chapter, every lesson, every topic — laid out before you enroll. Click any chapter to expand it.
- Chapters
- 21
- Lessons
- 69
- Topics
- 141
- 01Refutation of Adamic authority and hereditary rule
- 02Definition of political power
- 01Natural freedom and equality
- 02Hooker on equality and mutual love
- 03Liberty is not licence
- 01Law of nature and equal restraint
- 02Right to punish offenders
- 03Punishment as reparation and deterrence
- 01Punishment of aliens under natural law
- 02Injury, reparation, and the magistrate's power
- 03Punishment of murder and lesser breaches
- 01Independent governments in the state of nature
- 02Executive power of the law of nature
- 03Hooker on natural law and politic society
- 01The state of war as declared enmity
- 02Attempted enslavement and theft as acts of war
- 03Difference between the state of nature and the state of war
- 04Cessation of war and appeal to heaven
- 01Natural liberty and civil freedom
- 02Limits of slavery and voluntary servitude
- 01Natural reason and common ownership of the earth
- 02Labour as the source of property
- 01Labour as the basis of property
- 02Limits on appropriation and spoilage
- 01Appropriation by labor and improvement
- 01Labour as the basis of appropriation
- 02Natural limits on property
- 03Money and larger possessions
- 01Labour creates property in land and produce
- 02Labour as the source of value
- 03Money, waste land, and lasting property
- 01Use of money and durable exchange
- 02Money’s role in enlarging possessions
- 03Gold and silver by consent
- 01Labour as the original title to property
- 01Parental power and the mother’s equal title
- 02Equality, natural freedom, and temporary parental jurisdiction
- 01The power of parents over children
- 01Temporary tuition versus lifelong honour
- 01Inheritance and submission to government
- 01Limits of paternal authority and family government
- 01Children's tacit consent to paternal authority
- 02From family fathers to hereditary and elective kingdoms
- 01Conjugal society as the first family bond
- 02Why the marriage bond lasts longer in humans
- 03Limits of marital power and civil regulation
- 01Master and servant versus slavery
- 02Political or civil society and commonwealth authority
- 03Absolute monarchy and civil society
- 01Absolute princes remain in the state of nature
- 02Limits of absolute monarchy and civil security
- 01No exemption from civil laws
- 01Consent as the basis of civil society
- 02Majority rule in the body politic
- 03Obligation to submit to the majority
- 04Why unanimous consent is impractical
- 01Consent as the beginning of lawful government
- 02Objections from history and birth under government
- 03Examples of Rome and Venice
- 01Voluntary union and consent of governors
- 02Paternal beginnings of government
- 01Why early societies chose monarchy
- 02Kings as war leaders in America and Israel
- 03From hereditary rule to restrained government
- 01Consent as the basis of peaceful government
- 02Reply to the objection that all men are born under government
- 01Withdrawal from inherited jurisdictions
- 02Children's consent and inherited property
- 03Freemen born under government
- 01Natural freedom and tacit consent
- 01Tacit consent through land possession
- 02Local protection does not create membership
- 01Why people leave the state of nature
- 02The three defects of natural condition
- 03Transfer of natural powers to society
- 04Limits and duties of legislative power
- 01Forms of government by the placement of legislative power
- 02Meaning of 'commonwealth' as an independent community
- 01The legislative power as supreme authority
- 02Limits on legislative power over lives and fortunes
- 01Limits of legislative power under natural law
- 02Standing laws and authorized judges
- 01Declared laws versus arbitrary rule
- 02Property cannot be taken without consent
- 01The legislative cannot transfer lawmaking power
- 02Bounds on legislative power
- 01Legislative power and separation from execution
- 02Federative power in foreign affairs
- 03Why executive and federative powers are usually united
- 01Legislative supremacy and the people's reserved power
- 02Supreme power while government subsists
- 03Supreme execution in mixed governments
- 01Executive power as public representation
- 02Subordination and accountability of ministerial powers
- 03Necessity of the executive and convoking the legislature
- 01Executive power to convene and dissolve the legislature
- 01Unequal representation and the need for remedy
- 01Of prerogative
- 01The power of calling parliaments in England
- 01CHAPTER. XV. OF PATERNAL, POLITICAL, AND DESPOTICAL POWER, CONSIDERED TOGETHER.
- 01Of conquest
- 01Conqueror’s power in a lawful war
- 01Conqueror's power over persons and estates
- 01Rights of innocent wife and children
- 02Conqueror’s title to reparation and land
- 01No right of dominion over the subdued
- 02Promises extorted by force are not consent
- 03Conqueror's power ends with the subdued, not their children
- 01Native freedom and hereditary property
- 01Conquest and the limits of dominion
- 01Nature of usurpation and tyranny
- 02Lawful designation of rulers
- 01Of tyranny
- 01Kings bound by law, not will
- 02Tyranny in any form of government
- 03Where law ends, tyranny begins
- 04Objection about resisting princes
- 01Resistance to unjust force
- 02Sacredness of the prince's person
- 03Illegal acts of commissioned officers
- 04Appeal to law before resistance
- 01Signs of arbitrary power
- 01Dissolution of society by foreign conquest
- 02Dissolution from within: alteration of the legislative
- 01Prince obstructing the legislative assembly
- 01Supreme executive neglect and abandonment of office
- 01Legislative breach of trust by invading property
- 02Supreme executor's breach of trust and election manipulation
- 01People's right to set up a new legislative
- 02Why this right does not cause frequent rebellion
- 01Rebellion as force against lawful authority
- 02Why resistance to tyranny is justified
- 03Resistance to magistrates who use force without right
- 01Self-defence against tyrannical kings
- 01Resistance with reverence and without punishment
- 02Barclay’s two cases of forfeiture
- 01The people as judge of trust
- 02Appeal to heaven in disputed cases
- 03Forfeiture and reversion of legislative power
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