How Things Work – A Brief History of Reality
Book I – Dualism (John Locke & Constitutional Government)
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Tuesday, March 29, 2022
“The only defense against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.” – John Locke
CONSIDERATION #24 – “JOHN LOCKE” (Limited Constitutional Government)
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
“The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of their mischiefs... has been, not whether be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it.”
John Locke – Some Thoughts Concerning Education
There is perhaps no Enlightenment thinker who influenced the American Revolution more than John Locke. His work becomes the inspiration for the Declaration of Independence and the foundation for the U.S. Constitution.
The English philosopher and political theorist John Locke (1632-1704) laid much of the groundwork for the Enlightenment and made central contributions to the development of liberalism. Trained in medicine, he was a key advocate of the empirical approaches of the Scientific Revolution. In his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” he advanced a theory of the self as a blank page, with knowledge and identity arising only from accumulated experience. His political theory of government by the consent of the governed as a means to protect the three natural rights of “life, liberty and estate” deeply influenced the United States’ founding documents. His essays on religious tolerance provided an early model for the separation of church and state.
John Locke – History.com (September 20, 2019)
Unlike Hobbes, Locke believed in the “divine spark of reason” that resided in each individual human being. In addition, Locke believed that government’s main function was to protect the “natural rights” of its citizens as opposed to only providing protection and security. Although Locke recognized the nature of “human weakness,” he saw this as a weakness of all human beings including the rulers and elite. Therefore, all human beings, including the rulers, should be subject to the same benefits and responsibilities. Locke saw the law as the instrument of reasonable justice that should be applied to the governed and government alike. The citizens would be bound and restrained by the laws of the state. However, the state would be bound and restrained by the laws of the Constitution.
“It could certainly be argued that there is more of John Locke’s influence in the Declaration of Independence than there is Thomas Jefferson’s…”
Locke’s influence on the Constitution is the Constitution itself. However, the influence of Locke’s views regarding political and moral theory is nowhere more fully manifested than in the Declaration of Independence. It could certainly be argued that there is more of John Locke’s influence in the Declaration of Independence than there is Thomas Jefferson’s, starting from the very Introduction:
The first key principle is Natural Law and how it provides parity between America and Great Britain while also alluding to divine rights given by a higher power, “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them." This essentially gives people the “right” to assume political independence. However, in keeping with Enlightenment ideals, such an assumption requires reasonable, rational facts based on evidence which can be easily and simply explained to other rational beings providing, “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind… that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
With purpose and aspiration, the Introduction of the Declaration of Independence establishes that “America” is equal to Great Britain, and that because of good reasons that will be explained, they had been “forced” (impelled) to separate from them.
– Frank Elkins, Being American: A Primer for All Parties & Persuasions
However, Locke’s influence is nowhere more prevalent than in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Here, the physical manifestation of the Enlightenment’s abstract ideas is attempted for the very first time in history.
The Preamble in the Declaration of Independence begins with perhaps the most famous words in western history and tradition:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It then asserts that the very purpose of government is to secure these “inalienable” rights for the people it represents: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” and that governments should be organized for the good of the people it serves, “and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness...”
The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence establishes certain “self-evident” truths that are critical to good government. Self-evident truths need no explanation, they are self-explanatory, they are recognized as much as understood. For example, anyone who is not color-blind recognizes “blue” instinctively – it does not need to be explained. Self-evident truths reflect the natural outcome of reason. The first of these self-evident truths is that all people (men) are born equal… it establishes the concept of unalienable, or inalienable, rights, “…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” These are the rights given to human beings not by the government, but by “Nature” or “God,” as Locke had previously written about with one key distinction; property had been changed to “pursuit of happiness.”
– Frank Elkins, Being American: A Primer for All Parties & Persuasions
Although Locke’s imprint on the American experiment is ubiquitous, Hobbes’ influence can also be detected. We see the reflection of a single, powerful, authority figure in the Executive Branch of our government, the President. This single individual runs the entire Executive Branch of Government, implements all laws passed by Congress, and has the added power and authority of being the uncontested Commander in Chief of the military. However, Locke suggested a Constitution designed to keep the power of the President, or Executive Branch of government, from ever becoming a Leviathan.
CONSIDERATION #20: Constitutional Government
John Locke
“The end (purpose) of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.”
― John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government
Like Hobbes, John Locke, a strong empiricist, believed that prior to government people lived in a state of nature with natural rights. However, unlike Hobbes, he believed that human nature was inherently good, because human beings were rational beings, created in the image of God. In addition, he argued that natural rights were given to Adam by God in the Garden of Eden, and thus these “God-given Rights” were the legacy of all human beings. Locke defined these divine rights as Life, Liberty, and Property:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
― Genesis. 1:26
It is critical to understand that for Enlightenment thinkers, like Locke, the concept of “property” begins with the recognition of an individual self. According to Locke, “Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.” Although these rights were given to each individual human being by the Creator, it was still difficult to defend and maintain them in a state of nature. Therefore, once again, the population would enter into a Social Contract in order to protect their lives, liberty, and property. However, here is where Locke parts company with Hobbes and establishes a new definition and limitation for a more enlightened idea of government which is established to protect its citizen’s individual rights.
“…Locke believed in the potential of the individual, and that if allowed to maintain and exploit their natural rights, they would take positive actions and the world would become a much better place.”
Essentially, Locke argues that the purpose of government is specifically to defend the natural rights of those who entered into the Social Contract. Therefore, a government’s power should be limited to encourage such an outcome. Unlike Hobbes, who promised complete self-destruction without an all-powerful task master to keep us in compliance by divine proclamation, Locke believed in the potential of the individual, and that if allowed to maintain and exploit their natural rights, they would take positive actions and the world would become a much better place. In 1689, Locke introduced the concept of a constitutional government for the first time in his Two Treatises of Government.
“For Locke, individuals should not give up their sovereignty to a government, since the government is the agency specifically created to protect and ensure that very sovereignty.”
Under a constitutional government, the power of the government is limited by law. Specifically, only powers that enable it to protect and defend the natural rights of its citizens are required. All other powers would be limited by law. Since the purpose of government is to secure and preserve the individual rights of its citizens, if the government fails to do this, the citizens have not only a right, but an obligation, to revolt and overthrow the oppressive government. For Locke, individuals should not give up their sovereignty to a government, since the government is the agency specifically created to protect and ensure that very sovereignty. This was truly enlightened thinking for the time.
POSTSCRIPT
We now have three examples of attempts to implement Rousseau’s Social Contract Theory. First, Hobbes represents a “status quo” approach in which the general concept of a strong monarch remains relatively the same. Second, Rousseau’s approach of forcefully implementing a perfect society run by the elite; eventually leading to the unsuccessful French Revolution. Third, the American Revolution guaranteeing the essential values of individual life, individual liberty, and individual inalienable rights through the Declaration of Independence, which are then guaranteed and protected by law through the Constitution. Of these three attempts virtually no functional monarchies remain, multiple attempts at implementing the perfect society have failed, and although having suffered wounds from challenges along the way, the Democratic Constitutional Republic of the United States still remains. Why?
Locke once wrote, “The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind... has been, not whether be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it.”
In the Hobbes model power is given to a sovereign monarch. In the Rousseau model power is given to a select group of elite thinkers. In the Locke model power is given to the people, the citizens themselves. For the first time, all power, even the power to make the laws, was essentially generated from, and for, the people. This occurred through democratic elections. However, exactly who “the people” were would change and expand over time.
Next week we will consider Adam Smith’s economic revolution and its influence and impact on the scientific and industrial revolutions.
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