Two Treatises of Government · Chapter
Of Property explained
Locke argues that while God gave the earth to mankind in common, individuals can acquire private property by mixing their labor with natural resources, without the need for express consent from all commoners.
What happens
Locke argues that while God gave the earth to mankind in common, individuals can acquire private property by mixing their labor with natural resources, without the need for express consent from all commoners. He establishes that labor is the foundation of property, limited by the proviso that one must leave enough and as good for others and not take more than can be used before spoilage. The chapter also discusses the role of money in enabling the accumulation of durable goods and the eventual regulation of property by positive laws.
Themes in this chapter
Property and Labor
Locke establishes that labor, mixed with common resources, creates private property, and that this right is limited by the needs of others and the prohibition of waste.
State of Nature and Social Contract
The chapter describes a state of nature where property arises from labor without explicit consent, and later societies use compact to regulate property.
Natural Rights and Liberty
Locke grounds the right to property in natural reason and self-preservation, asserting that individuals have a right to the fruits of their labor.
Characters to notice
- Adam
Referenced as the recipient of God's grant of the world, which Filmer used to argue for absolute monarchy.
- Noah
Mentioned alongside Adam as a recipient of God's grant of the world to mankind.
- Sir Robert Filmer
Implicitly criticized for his claim that property is impossible without a universal monarch, which Locke refutes.
Key passages
“Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his.”
While the earth and its resources are shared by all, each person owns their own body and the labor it performs, making that labor their exclusive property.
Locke's foundational claim that self-ownership is the basis for property rights.
“Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property.”
When a person takes something from nature and adds their labor to it, that object becomes their private property.
The labor-mixing argument that justifies original appropriation.
“The same law of nature, that does by this means give us property, does also bound that property too. 'God has given us all things richly,' 1 Tim. 6:17, is the voice of reason confirmed by inspiration. But how far has he given it us? To enjoy. As much as anyone can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, so much he may by his labour fix a property in: whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to others.”
The natural law that grants property also limits it: one may only appropriate as much as can be used before it spoils, and anything beyond that is unjust.
Locke's spoilage proviso restricts accumulation to prevent waste.