John Locke's Political Thought

In this paper, I attempt to make clear the character of Locke's political thought by examining the development of his natural law teaching. In the Latin-Essays on the Law of Nature written in 1660-1664, Locke derives natural law from man's rational nature and this, in its turn, from God's wisdom and the eternal order that prevails in the universe. There is a harmony (convenientia) between natural law and man's rational nature. And in this state of 'convenientia' a necessary connection between virtue and happiness exists. But the concept of 'convenientia' is a ideal concept, and a necessary connection between the two is not visible in this life and can be guaranteed only if there is a life after death. Locke's moral theory became hedonistic, probably as a result of his contact with the Gassendists during his sojourn in France (1675-1679). When Locke attempted to reconcile the hedonistic theory with his earlier rationalistic theory by conceiving moral goodness or badness as the reward or punishment, i. e. the pleasure or pain following the observation or breach of a law made by God, he accepted the standpoint of the Christian hedonism. The concept of 'the divine reward and punishment in another life' plays a important rôle in his Christian hedonism. According to this theory, the true happiness consists in the divine reward in another life. However, our assurance that there is another life belongs to the province of faith and not to that of reason. Locke says that reason cannot demonstrate it. The Christian hedonism based on the belief in a life after death would not be unversally accepted as unquestionably true. The Christian hedonism must be secularized. But the concept of happiness is too vague to be made the principle of action. Accordingly, Locke sought the principle of action not in the pursuit of happiness but in the preservation of life. Everyone has the natural right to preserve himself. Since self-preservation requires property, the right to property is a corollary of the fundamental right of self-preservation. It is labour that creates property, and different degrees of industry give men property in different proportions. The necessary connection between the industrious labour and the enlargement of property is, so to speak, the secularized form of 'the connection between virtue and happiness'. And this secularized form of the connection gives the natural law its content. It is now not God but State that guarantees this connection in this world. State is completely separated from Church. Locke's concept of the natural law was thus completely secularized