Locke: an Alternate State of Nature

"Men living together according to reason, without a common superior on earth, with authority to judge between them, is properly the state of nature. But force, or a declared design of force, upon the person of another, where there is no common superior on earth to appeal to for relief, is the state of war: and it is the want of such an appeal gives a man the right of war even against an aggressor, tho' he be in society and a fellow subject." (section 19)

John Locke, A second Treatise on Government. Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis and Cambridge 1980. (Gutenberg txt). Image: sir G. Kneller, portrait of John Locke.1697. Houghton Hall 1779.

The Glorious Revolution was to Locke as the civil war was to Hobbes; the two important political events supplied these great thinkers with crucial moments of insight. In 1688 king James the II (of England) was overthrown by parliament. The struggle was mainly a religious one: the Catholic Royals had always clashed with parliament, which was predominantly protestant. However, both parties had been pressing each other’s buttons for over centuries now, competing for power. A year after the Glorious Revolution the Bill of Rights was drawn up, which first attributed citizens with inviolable rights. 

Locke abhorred absolute, unlimited power. His work on political theory does its best to protect citizens from the whimsy of their ruler(s) consolidating their position and property. Clearly, Locke had a decidedly better opinion about mankind, as his view on the natural condition will demonstrate. Locke's natural condition is, exactly as in Hobbes' theory, a pre-political world where people are rational agents, roughly equal to each other. However, where in Hobbes' theory this equality bred war and damnation, Locke sees it as the foundation for empathy and respect. Reason teaches man too cherish that which makes him human, and therefore to cherish the same in others. As a result, it is a natural law to preserve one's fellow man as well as oneself (with the latter taking precedence over the former in drastic circumstances).  While this natural law is adhered to by the general majority, things will start to fall apart when even some few individuals fail to respect it. 

To deviate from the golden rule -treat others as you would like to be treated yourself- is, according to Locke, irrational, but it happens. People are often overruled by their passions: covetousness, greed, lust etc. The threat of this irrationality is a constant concern for the inhabitants of the idyllic natural condition. When one individual falters, and endeavours to subject others to his will, the response from the community –for it is by that time a community, if not yet a polity- is fierce and indignant. Whereas generally an offense should be repaid in proportion to the severity of its consequences, some offenses will call for a more emotional response; and crucially, with everyone being free and equal, everyone is free to become his or her own executioner. For lack of a neutral authority to decide on proper justice, there is no deterrent against revenge. Thus a circle of enmity and malice is born and gone is the Arcadia of the natural condition.