The Significance of Property Acquisition and its Association to Preservation in Locke's Second Treatise

This essay explores the origin of property in the state of nature in Locke's Second Treatise and its association to preservation. It sheds light on the limitations posed on property acquisition and its association to preservation, power division within the government, and the authority of people within the society. The essay evaluates the significance of the enhanced productivity caused by labour along with the association between money and property.

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POLITICAL SCIENCE
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John Locke’s fundamental political analysis known as The Two Treaties of Government
(1690) has been significantly been recognized as a seminal piece of work in the history of
political liberalism (Locke). However, the Second Treatise in particular has been recognized
whereby Locke has posed certain significant disagreements related to the case of individual
natural rights and privileges, limited government depending on the sanction and approval of the
governed, power division within the government and further most importantly the authority of
people within the society in order to depose ruling section who have being incapable to preserve
their end of social contract (Drahos). The essay will comprise the origin of property in the state
of nature in Locke’s Second Treatise by shedding light on the limitations posed on property
acquisition and its association to preservation. The thesis statement of this essay is “the
significance of the enhanced productivity caused by labour along with the association between
money and property”.
The theoretical understanding of state of nature holds various connotations whereby in
the opinion of Hobbes, the state of nature is considered as a state of persistent mutual
exploitation, all individuals seeking to govern individuals of the society and to obtain honour and
revenues (Ashcraft). However, Hobbes argued that there are no human rights in the state of
nature where individuals possess the natural authority to act in order to uphold the individualistic
liberty and protection and further implies they way they respond savagely to each other with the
intention to preserve their own life (Zwolinski). However, Locke holds a different position in
comparison to Hobbes where he believes that individuals could live in a state of nature and
further ‘this state of nature’ gives rise to complete autonomy where all individuals are given
equal opportunity and can be associated with the ‘bond by the law of nature’ (Locke). In the
opinion of Locke, human authorities and rights are regarded as rights which every individual

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possess and further belong to all humans, thus cannot be transferable to others in the society.
Furthermore, Locke has critically argued that initially in the state of nature, there has a lack of
incentive for any individual to intend to gather more additional property which an individual
could utilize as major proportion of goods were considered to be unpreserved (Locke). Locke
had further provided an explicit understanding of an early state of existence where there had
been an abundance of resources with scarcity of population although the essential level of wealth
was probably very low (Drahos).
Locke holds the assumptions that when individual possesses equal privileges and
opportunities to suitable land and further obtain approximate value and revenues from it, an
individual has the right to suitable undemanded land as one’s privately owned asset or property
and this misuse further establishes indisputable situation to gain full property authorization
preserved by the appropriator regarding the specific parcel of property (Locke). Thus it has been
noted that from premises related to self-ownership alone nothing can be associated with the
liable possession of parts of the earth (Epstein). Furthermore, Locke believed that each
individual possess the rightful ownership of one’s own self and further reinforced on the notion
of the world as a shared property or belong to Adam’s child Abel and his descendents
(Zwolinski). However, under conditions of non-scarcity, individuals can perceive that if an
individual has a rightful possession to one’s own self, individuals ought to be able to apposite as
much land as possible and further obtain revenues by exerting labour on that land (Locke).
Furthermore, if an individual claims his labour to be his own along with the abundance of land,
others could demand the justifiable possession to a portion of that individual’s labour on that
non-scarce land (Claeys).

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However, Locke has evaluated that the spoilage constraint does not bring limitations to
the proportion of property which individuals legally obtain and merely prohibits claims of
possession to unpreserved goods and property that cause damage while in one’s possessed
property, whereby the exceeding of the limits of the individual’s property not dependent on the
broader domain of the individual’s property possession (Locke). Furthermore, it has been noted
that individual may claim to inflate his own stock of private possession with the exchange of
unpreserved or consumable goods which one is unable to utilize for functional purposes or for
barter purposes (Epstein). Furthermore, land owners can further exchange perishable goods or
properties for durable goods which will not blemish the precious metals. In the opinion of Locke,
as precious goods or metals had widely been recognized as monetary matter, it had been able to
obtain potentially unconstrained amounts of property without breaching the spoilage
inadequacies. However, this form of development had been essentially significant towards land
possession (Locke). Prior to the advent of funds or money, individuals showed immense degree
of inclination and proclivity to the expansion of the landed property because of the abundance of
natural resources which had been utilized as beneficiary factors for land owners and their
families. However, a transition had been witnessed with the surplus of land along with its
resources which could have been sold for funds or money that is considered as a durable form of
wealth which does not violate or create challenges to the spoilage limitation (Locke). Money as a
monetary factor had been developed with extensive commerce by further creating enhancement
to both diversity and demand for possessions which had been immensely developed with the
wealth of nations(Locke).
Locke in his Second Treatise had interpreted the ethical principle whereby an individual
owns the natural authority to obtain the major proportion of the property as had been regarded as

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dependable with the individual’s level of competence to obtain similar proportion of property or
land of comparable worth (Locke). However as Locke stated that the natural normative
restrictions of the state of nature had been regarded as archaic in the society with the utilization
of money and conditionally an acquisition of land and property that is far exceeding that the
natural bounds. As acquisition of property had been perceived as an essential right along with the
notion of the material of earth to be finite, the fundamental right to extract resources from the
earth through labour cannot be unrestrained (Epstein). However, the advent money had
effectively conquer the natural limitations of property acquisition whereby it had been possible
to create productive use of property far in excess of the limits established by nature by further
substituting individual’s abundance of property for money which does not destroy for the excess
proportion of others property which further aids the division of labour (Locke). However, the
principles stated by Locke had explicitly comprehended the facets which reveal that the
individual’s right to obtain or acquire property both in the state of nature as well as in civil
society had been restricted by the authorities of all others to be capable to obtain the equivalent
property for themselves (Breakey). Under the conceptualization of the divine law Locke has
disagreed on the ideas that these limitations towards acquisition of property had been established
by nature itself whereas in the civil society Locke explicitly entailed that these forms of
constraints had been established by the legislation based on the standards of the collective
consent of the society (Locke).
However, Locke had stated that the fundamental reason for the mutual preservation of
individual’s lives, autonomy and estates recognized as property whereby property is
comprehended as goods or resources. Therefore from the above discussion it can be concluded
that the preservation of property had been understood as the safeguard and protection of natural

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rights. The essay had explicitly evaluated the origin of property in the state of nature and the way
forms of authorization had been altered with the advent of money and durable goods.

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References
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