Comparing Locke And Rousseau's Second Treatise

In 1689, John Locke published Two Treatises of Government, a politically philosophical essay designed to attack patriarchalism and alternatively offer ideas for a more civilized society. In the Second Treatise Locke develops the theory of ‘state of nature’ which entails that all individuals govern themselves and thus govern their own property. “To properly understand political power and trace its origins, we must consider the state that all people are in naturally. That is a state of perfect freedom of acting and disposing of their own possessions and persons as they think fit within the bounds of the law of nature. People in this state do not have to ask permission to act or depend on the will of others to arrange matters on their behalf. The natural state is also one of equality in which all power and jurisdiction is reciprocal and no one has more than another. It is evident that all human beings – as creatures belonging to the same species and rank and born indiscriminately with all the same natural advantages and faculties – are equal amongst themselves. They have no relationship of subordination or subjection unless God (the lord and master of them all) had clearly set one person above another and conferred on him an undoubted right to …show more content…
In Rousseau’s Second Discourse, written in 1754, the theory of a pure state of nature is presented. In this, Rousseau explains that before property, individuals were healthier and oriented on satisfying basic needs. In contrast to Locke, Rousseau’s theory relies heavily on the belief that man is intrinsically antisocial, and solitary. Mankind’s pure and natural state was isolation and consequently, when civil society formed, freedom was taken away. With the integration of property we see the erection of government, the complexities of reputations and the misguided importance of