Second Treatise of Government

“[A]nd reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”

This is one of Locke’s major points in his argument that all human beings share a basic level of equality with each other. Reason, and with it the ability to understand there are certain natural laws that exist and apply to all, isn’t necessarily the great leveler—that would be the state of nature. However, reason is the key capacity and sense that allows human beings to recognize these laws and follow them honestly and actively.

“[O]ne may destroy a man who makes war upon him, or has discovered an enmity to his being, for the same reason that he may kill a wolf or a lion; because such men are not under the ties of the common law of reason, have no other rule, but that of force and violence, and so may be treated as beasts of prey, those dangerous and noxious creatures, that will be sure to destroy him whenever he falls into their power.”

Locke’s state of war is similar to the state of nature envisioned by Hobbes, though a crucial difference is Locke’s belief that most human beings maintain some level of rationality within this state of war. In fact, it’s arguable that the only reason the state of war exists is because some men become “beasts of prey” who seek stimulation only through extreme violence and therefore must be, under Locke’s conception, either subdued or destroyed.

“The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule.”

This is another example of Locke returning to his conception of the state of nature and why such a state implies universal freedom. It’s an essential part of his philosophy and liberal thought because it illustrates the idea that no one, not another person or