SOCY 151 - Lecture 3 - Locke: Equality, Freedom, Property and the Right to Dissent

Lecture 3 - Locke: Equality, Freedom, Property and the Right to Dissent

Overview

John Locke, a liberal thinker and near-contemporary of the conservative Hobbes, disputes Hobbes's thinking in some keys ways and builds on it in others. Locke starts his political theory with a notion of individuals in the state of nature being free, equal and reasonable; the state of nature is not synonymous with the state of war for Locke as it is for Hobbes. Locke argues that states should protect the property of individuals and must govern with the consent of subjects. Unlike Hobbes's strong, unitary sovereign, Locke envisions a separation of the powers of the state into executive, legislative, and federative powers. We examine how Locke's political and social thought assumes an abundance of resources while Hobbes's thought is predicated on an assumption of scarcity.

Assignment

Locke, Second Treatise of Government
- Chapter 1-5, pp. 267-302
- Chapter 7-13, pp. 318-374

Course Media

Transcript

html

Audio

mp3

Low Bandwidth Video

mov [100MB]

High Bandwidth Video

mov [500MB]