en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_society
2 corrections found
Therefore, Locke set forth two treaties on government with reciprocal obligations. In the first treaty, people submit themselves to the common public authority. This authority has the power to enact and maintain laws. The second treaty contains the limitations of authority, i. e., the state has no power to threaten the basic rights of human beings.
This misdescribes Locke’s Two Treatises of Government. The First Treatise is a rebuttal of Robert Filmer’s defense of divine-right monarchy, while Locke’s positive social-contract account of limited government is in the Second Treatise.
Full reasoning
Locke did not present “two treaties” laying out reciprocal obligations between people and the state. His work is titled Two Treatises of Government. More importantly, the article assigns the wrong content to the two treatises.
Authoritative summaries explain that Locke’s First Treatise is mainly a critique of Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha and its defense of divine-right monarchy. Locke’s positive theory of political power, consent, natural rights, and limited government is developed in the Second Treatise. So the passage is incorrect both in naming the work and in claiming that the “first treaty” is where people submit to public authority while the “second treaty” merely supplies limitations on that authority.
In short: First Treatise = attack on Filmer/divine right; Second Treatise = Locke’s social-contract theory and limits on government.
2 sources
- Locke, John | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The First Treatise ... takes the form of a detailed critique of ... Robert Filmer. After clearing some ground in the First Treatise, Locke offers a positive view of the nature of government in the much better known Second Treatise.
- John Locke (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Among Locke’s political works he is most famous for The Second Treatise of Government in which he argues that sovereignty resides in the people and explains the nature of legitimate government in terms of natural rights and the social contract.
It was the period of the Glorious Revolution, marked by the struggle between the divine right of the Crown and the political rights of Parliament. This influenced Locke to forge a social contract theory of a limited state and a powerful society.
This likely misdates Locke’s political theory. Scholars generally hold that the Two Treatises were composed before the Glorious Revolution, during the Exclusion Crisis, though they were published in 1689.
Full reasoning
This passage ties Locke’s social-contract theory to the period of the Glorious Revolution, but standard reference works say Locke’s Two Treatises of Government were written earlier and only published in 1689.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that the work was long thought to defend the Glorious Revolution, but that scholars now agree it was actually composed much earlier. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy likewise says scholars now place the book in the Exclusion Crisis, not as a product of the 1688 Glorious Revolution itself. So the sentence is historically misleading because it locates the formation of Locke’s theory in the wrong political moment.
2 sources
- Locke, John | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locke’s Two Treatises of Government were published in 1689. It was originally thought that they were intended to defend the Glorious Revolution... We now know, however, that they were in fact composed much earlier.
- John Locke (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Scholars now hold that the book was written during the Exclusion Crisis... After his return from exile, Locke published ... The Two Treatises of Government.