Second Treatise of Government (Hackett Classics)

Worth the time and the money for anyone who wants to better understand what America was REALLY meant to be

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TouchStoneMT

May 25, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

While it's tough to slog through the LONG sentences and convoluted writing of a 17th century lawyer, THIS is one of the key sources that the Framers of America's Constitution used for the basis of their thinking.
Without John Locke - along with others of the European Enlightenment - the "American Experiment" would likely have never happened.
Worth the time and the money for anyone who wants to better understand what America was REALLY meant to be.

12 people found this helpful

Read to Learn about the Provenances of the Concepts and Ideas of Liberty and Rights of the People of our Modern Day Democracies

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Sonny Laskin

January 21, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Good book to learn about how current western systems of government evolved into how it is today from overreaching power of monarchical forms of government over the populace that existed in Western Europe during Locke's time. Locke's concepts of limited government, basic human liberties, private property, consent of the governed and the right to revolutionize against overreaching monarchs formed the basis of revolutions in the 18th & 19th centuries to form our Western civilization's methods and forms of democracy today albeit towards an oligarchical direction. Though I do have to demure to the fact that Locke viewed a slave as having liberty as long as the slaveowner did'nt murder or ill treat the slave beyond the boundaries of the slavery contract. I chalk up this tripe viewpoint up to more a reflection on the inured society to slavery during Locke's age than a reflection on Locke himself. Essential to these antecedent revolutions after Locke was Locke's concept in the second treatise of the consent of the governed to be ruled. It formed and fomented these revolutions to form our present day western democracies. It was nice to read about the thoughts of the grandfather of today's democracies. Only issue I had was it takes a little time and effort to get used to Locke's renaissance English but I think CB Macpherson did an overall good job in editing this book.

4 people found this helpful

I'm happy to have read John Locke's Second Treatise of Government

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Billie Pritchett

November 16, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I'm happy to have read John Locke's Second Treatise of Government. In this work, Locke argues that the purpose of government is to preserve people's life, freedom, and property, or as he writes life, "liberty," and property. The American founders were very much influenced by Locke's work here, which is why Americans' right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is guaranteed in our Declaration of Independence.

In the treatise, Locke tells the story that we were once in a state of nature, where we were all free and equal. Life was good for us all except when people wanted retribution for harms done, so this state of nature deteriorated into a state of war. Then we agreed to form governments to have an outside arbitrator who could provide us protections for our lives, freedoms, and property. It's unclear if Locke really believes this account but in some passages seems to half-heartedly endorse it. At any rate, Locke thinks that a sufficient reason for joining up with a government as opposed to living in an anarchist society (a society devoid of a formal State) is that the government or State could guarantee its citizens with protections that the anarchist society could not.

Locke has some interesting arguments in here about how we as human beings own our own bodies and are entitled to property because we mix our labor with natural resources and so we are also entitled to the fruits of our labor, since this labor is an extension of our bodies. But Locke puts a proviso in there, which, if took seriously, would have radical explanations. Locke thinks that we should only accept enough property so that there would be enough left for others. After he makes mention of this proviso, he doesn't really seem to take it seriously throughout the rest of the work, nor did those who adapted the work to their own purposes, like the American framers for example. But if they did, it would have major implications for what the organization of a more decent society would look like.

3 people found this helpful

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Brent

Got my Fiance a B+ on her paper. Also, offers some insightful knowledge

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Liberally classic

Locke provides a good exposition of basic political philosophy grounded in natural rights, but he seems rather hasty in his dismissal of anarchy.

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Hard to read. Great concepts if you are patient.

This is a tough read. 3 of the 4 of these I purchased did not get past the first few pages. I'm still struggling with it. Old English wording is fairly tough to understand.Read more

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Arrived well after supposed to arrive

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Four Stars

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Stacie C.

Son needed for college great price worked out great with quick delivery!

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Thomas M. Carpenter

The printing is clean and easy to read

The introduction is clear. The printing is clean and easy to read. These are basics when trying to understand centuries old political theses.

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Great!

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D. Schultz

Must read for every conservative--then you'll realize you weren't as conservative as you thought....

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