Locke on Property

Assumptions:

God, intentional and active in the world

World, exists to serve human purposes

Individuals, come from God, are obliged to do God’s work in/with world.

Big Q. (2T, ch.5, p.273)

Locke's ‘state of nature’ = a pre-political condition of freedom and equality, subject to restraints of the divinely established law of nature knowable by human reason and hence open to due right of punishment.

As such, where do property rights come from? (sect 25:273).

How do fragments of nature, initially available to everyone collectively, become owned by specifiable individuals, and without express consent of those others?

‘Appropriation’.

‘Enclosure’.

Locke's Big A.

5 lines of argument:

1. Divine purpose: (sect. 26: 274)

Man is ‘workmanship’ and hence property of God (sect 6:264; 56: 288).

Man obliged to survive and not destroy self or others (sect 6:264).

Earth created for human use.

God commands man to labor (sect. 32: 277) and appropriate (sect. 35: 278).

As a mater of physical necessity, objects cannot be used or consumed except individually.

Hence there must be orderly way to individually appropriate.

2. Labor-Mixing (physical workmanship): (sect 27: 274)

i. I own my body. (see also sect. 44: 283)

ii. Thus, I own my labor (an activity of my body).

iii. When I cultivate land, gather apples, etc., I mix my labor, if not part of myself, with these objects.

iv. Therefore laboring on or with the land, makes the resulting objects mine.

3. Labor-Marking (mental workmanship) (sect.28: 275)

i. I own my body and mind.

ii. I place my ideas and intentions in objects.

iii. Objects so marked or distinguished or altered (sect 37. 280) become mine.

4. Value-Added (sect. 32: 276-7)

None worse off, or actually, …

Given the low value of raw nature or waste (sect. 36: 279)

1/10tth or 1/100^th of value is natural (sect. 40: 281)

nature is almost worthless (sect. 43: 283)

And that God commands to improve (sect. 32: 277)

‘Cultivation’.

‘Improvement’.

Add to intrinsic value by arranging for human utility (sect. 37: 279)

Everyone benefits from increased productivity.

5. Divine Reward for Industry (sect. 34: 277)

Labor is hard work.

Takes pains. (sect. 30: 276, 37: 280)

God intends to reward rational and industrious

Not covetous or contentious.

Limits on acquisition? On engrossing?

Answer: the "Lockean provisos":

· Don’t take more than you can use without ‘spoiling’. (sect. 31: 276)

· You must leave ‘enough and as good’ for others. (sect. 33: 277)

But …

Productivity

And

Money (sect.36-37: 279)

and since this is a consensual medium, … human societies have accepted material inequality (sect.50: 286)

Locke’s Big Implications:

1. Labor marks and enclosures, and also money

and hence also private property and wealth differentials,

‘grass … turfs … ore’ (sect. 28: 275)

are all the marks and enclosures

that constitute human civilization (sect. 30:275)

no room for criticism (sect. 39: 281)

property of labor trumps community of land (sect. 40: 281)

2. Purpose of politics: to preserve ‘property’

Property =

i. Life, liberty, & estate

ii. estate

if 1. Then politics protects everyone

if 2. Then property protects or at least favors those in proportion to the size of their estates (sect. 50-51: 286)

3. Spreading property civilizes

Colonization of what is still waste, unproductive, non-monetarized or even if enclosed, done so unproductively

e.g. the Americas (sect.49: 285; 41: 281; 45: 284)