Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| State: In political philosophy, the state (polity) is a centralized political organization with authority over a defined territory and population. It enforces laws, maintains order, and exercises governance through various institutions. See also Society, Nations, Governance, Institutions, Power, Law, Laws, Rights, Jurisdiction, Legislation._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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John Locke on State (Polity) - Dictionary of Arguments
Mause I 36 State/Locke: For Locke, the purpose of the state is the protection of property. This theoretically presupposes that Locke, unlike Hobbes, already has property rights in their natural state and the latter is not per se a state of war, so that the state established by contract is preferable to the state of nature and legitimate only if the property in it is better protected than before; and this also means in particular that it must be protected from interference by the state itself under all circumstances. - - - Höffe I 248 State/Liberalism/Locke/Höffe: Like Hobbes, Locke establishes the state from the consent of free people, from a social contract. However, he attaches importance to more than just securing peace. He also attaches importance to the separation of powers and, above all, to the three basic goods mentioned above: "life, liberty and property". In the sense of a concretising expansion, health also appears occasionally. LockeVsHobbes/LockeVsAbsolutism: Without the additional tasks of securing peace, explains Locke against Hobbes' absolutism, one would "consider people so foolish that they try to prevent what martens or Höffe I 249 foxes could do, but are happy, indeed consider it safe to be devoured by lions" (§ 93)(1). Governance/Locke: Because of its superior rank, Locke's basic goods ("life, liberty and property") could be considered basic and human rights. It is true that in the natural state everyone is entitled to them, but they are not secured there. Locke emphasizes again and again that the necessary violence for the state community that is necessary for this is ceded to a strong majority, but not to distributive and collective ones. Consequently, it is not excluded what contradicts the idea of a veritable basic and human right: that the majority of a minority restricts the rights and, as in Locke's letter of tolerance, refuses tolerance to Catholics and atheists. See >Tolerataion/Locke. Höffe I 251 Pre-contractual state: Among the obligations that prevail in Locke's pre-contractual natural state is the right, in the absence of a public authority, to punish the violation of the relevant divine and natural commandments itself. Locke sees the only way out of leaving the natural state in the establishment of a political or civil society(2). It consists in a "political body", i.e. a state-like community that receives its legitimation by the free consent of its members, rational beings, i.e. by a social contract. >Natural State/Locke, >Social Contract/Locke. 1. J. Locke, Second treatise of Government, 1689/90 2. Ibid. Chap. VII_____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Loc III J. Locke An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Mause I Karsten Mause Christian Müller Klaus Schubert, Politik und Wirtschaft: Ein integratives Kompendium Wiesbaden 2018 Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016 |
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> Counter arguments against Locke
> Counter arguments in relation to State (Polity)
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-25