Locke’s Argument on Private Property and the Justification for it First Locke states that “it is very clear that God…has given the earth to the children of men”(2ndtreatise), meaning that the earth was given to humanity as a whole so the issue that Locke tried to explain is his theory on how man can come to acquire individual private property. At a basic level Locke wants to argue that individuals can acquire full property rights over moveable and non-moveable parts of the earth in a state of nature, absent government. Our natural rights include the right legitimately to acquire property, and any government must respect natural rights including rights to property. (2nd treatise). There is also an important point with paragraph 27 which will
