Locke Grounds Government in Consent and Natural Rights
People carry rights to life, liberty, and property into political society, and can revolt if government betrays them
Quick facts
- Locke's dates
- 1632-1704
- Two Treatises published
- 1689 (anonymously)
- Natural rights
- Life, liberty, and property
- Key defense
- The right of revolution against tyranny
What happened
John Locke, born in 1632, published his Two Treatises of Government anonymously in 1689, arguing against Hobbes's absolutism that people possess natural rights, to life, liberty, and property, that exist independently of any particular society's laws. Locke argued that legitimate government arises only through a social contract in which people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights to a government in exchange for protection of the rest, and that a government which fails to protect those rights, or actively violates them, can be resisted and replaced, a position that became his defense of the right of revolution.
Why it matters
Locke's theory of government by consent and his defense of a right of revolution against tyrannical rule directly shaped the political arguments used to justify the American Revolution and its founding documents, making his 1689 treatise one of the most politically consequential works of philosophy ever written.
How we know
The Two Treatises survives in its original 1689 printing and subsequent editions Locke revised during his lifetime; his authorship, initially anonymous, is confirmed by his own later acknowledgment and by independent 20th-century manuscript research into his papers.
Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Locke's Political Philosophy · Reputable sourceplato.stanford.edu · The domain "plato.stanford.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Locke: Political Philosophy · Reputable sourceiep.utm.edu · The domain "iep.utm.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Enlightenment → · See the Enlightenment timeline for how Locke's theory of government by consent fed directly into the American Declaration of Independence.