Unlike Hobbes, Locke rejected absolutism, and his First
Treatise was an attack on Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, a defense
of the theory of divine right. His Second Treatise was the major
exposition of his political theory about the nature of man and the
nature of the state. This basic disagreement with Hobbes and
Filmer was most probably the product of his totally different
opinion of the nature of man. Locke saw a “native goodness” in
his fellow man and thought that mankind was generally decent,
social-minded, and capable of self-rule.
Man in the state of nature, according to Locke, is equal to all
other men. Equality, the law of nature, conforms to God’s will,
but this equality is not an equality of strength or intelligence.
Rather it is a moral equality. And while Locke rejects the concept
of divine right, the idea that God has somehow placed an
individual on the throne to rule with His blessing, he does see the
will of God manifested in the natural law, and insists that rational
men can discover these natural laws and construct a political
system that will work in accordance with these laws. Reason in
the state of nature will prevail, not anarchy, for mature men are
reasonable, and, with their “native goodness,” capable of gov
erning themselves.
In the state of nature, as Locke envisions it, the moral precepts
which are divined from the natural law are known to all reason
able men. For example, in the state of nature it is obvious that
murder is wrong, and as a wrong, punishment is justified. Yet if
a murder takes place, who is to administer the punishment? The
individual in nature has the right to administer justice according
to the moral code contained in the natural law. But the problem
inherent in this concept of the personal enforcement of the moral
law is apparent. Thus, says Locke, a political institution to
administer justice on behalf of the people is a necessity.
Thus the state is not a contrivance to save man from the
horrible state of war (in nature). It is a device to provide “certain
conveniences,” such as the administration of justice, for the men
who contract to establish it. Since man in the state of nature was
relatively content, the state is charged with providing those
“certain conveniences” which the citizens desire and need, as a
condition for its justification. Men, by consent, establish a state.
This social contract is an agreement which requires that the state
serve the requirements of the body politic as a condition, not only
166 Political Theory: The Relationship of Man and the State