Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 37 No. 1, 2017.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi37109
Significance of Property Rights and Political Community in Locke’s Philosophy of Politics
Petar Jakopec
orcid.org/0000-0003-0353-2806
; B. Težaka 1a, HR–42000 Varaždin
Abstract
This paper discusses Locke’s conception of the natural state as the first sequence in his contractualism narration, and the reasons for the abandonment of natural state and voluntary entry of individuals into political community. Individuals under the explicit consent apropos social contract become the members of political community. The motive for the creation of political community as the preservation of property was conceived as a pre-political category in Locke’s philosophy of politics, contrary to the theorists of his time such as Grotius, Hobbes, and Pufendorf. Locke thinks of the ownership in two ways: in the wider sense of the word, it means life, liberty and property of the individual, but in the strict sense it means to posses property. Political community, established as state, is intended to have an instrumental role which consists of having an impartial judge settling disputes, ensuring the preservation of property, and preventing possible violence and deception among individuals, arising from large difference in the property possession. The state prevents the personal implementation of natural law because it is the way in which the state can protect political community and its citizens from biased troubled individuals. The author seeks to offer the critical and analytical reconstruction of Locke’s argument of natural state and the contractualist justification for the constitution and modus operandi of the political community.
Keywords
John Locke; natural state; individual; property rights; political community; limited government
Hrčak ID:
187892
URI
Publication date:
16.3.2017.
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