book1689

Two Treatises of Government

Disciplines:

Summary

Locke's Two Treatises (1689) are the founding documents of liberal political theory, refuting divine-right monarchy and grounding government in natural rights and consent.

Core Contribution

The First Treatise demolishes Filmer's patriarchalist defense of divine-right monarchy; the Second Treatise argues that government is legitimate only when it protects natural rights (life, liberty, property) and that the people have the right to revolt when government violates these rights.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Demolition of Filmer (First Treatise meticulously destroys Filmer's Patriarcha — the primary defense of divine right monarchy)
Labor theory of property (mixing your labor with unowned nature creates property — up to the proviso that enough and as good remains for others)
Dissolution of government (when the legislature violates natural rights, political society dissolves and the people may form a new one)
Limited government mandate (government is a trustee — it exists to protect pre-political natural rights, not to define them)

Historical Influences

John Locke

Intellectual Lineage

Natural rights tradition Protestant political theology Classical republicanism

Allied Works

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding A Letter Concerning Toleration The Social Contract

Contemporaries & Peers

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding A Letter Concerning Toleration Two Treatises of Government

Minds Influenced

No recorded minds influenced.

Intellectual Posterity

Liberal political theory Social contract tradition American Declaration of Independence

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