Knowra Two Treatises of Government Two Treatises of Government John Locke’s 1689 political work rejects patriarchal monarchy and argues that natural rights and government by consent ground legitimate political authority.
Natural rights : Rights held by people by virtue of their nature, rather than granted by governments. Locke treats life, liberty, and property as limits on political authority.
Legislative power : The authority to make laws for a political community. Locke calls lawmaking the supreme, yet limited, power within a political society.
Robert Filmer : An English political theorist who defended patriarchal monarchy and hereditary royal authority. Locke structures the First Treatise as a sustained refutation of Filmer's arguments.
American Declaration of Independence : The 1776 statement announcing the American colonies' separation from Great Britain and explaining its political principles. Its language of rights, consent, and resistance echoes themes associated with Locke.
Consent of the governed : The principle that political authority is legitimate only when grounded in the agreement of those subject to it. Locke makes consent the basis for forming political society and government.
Executive power : The authority to enforce laws and administer a political community. Locke distinguishes enforcement from lawmaking to prevent concentrated political power.
Patriarcha : Robert Filmer's defense of hereditary monarchy, published posthumously in 1680. This book supplies the principal target Locke dismantles in the First Treatise.
American Revolution : The political and military struggle that established the independence of the United States from Britain. Lockean principles informed arguments used to justify resistance to British rule.
State of nature : A hypothetical condition of human life without established political authority. Locke uses it to explain natural freedom, equality, and the limits of individual power.
Prerogative : The executive's power to act for the public good where law is silent or impractical. Locke allows executive discretion but subjects its use to the people's judgment.
Show all 22