Property And Liberty-Locke On Property

Liberty is the main theme in all theories of John Locke. Although based onproperty right, Two Treatises of Government expound the origin、the purpose and theextend of the government, the authentic aim of which is to enter into a real world fullof political liberty owing to the arrangement and guarantee from the government.Excluding the sense of metaphysics，the liberty that can come true is real. While theactual foundation of liberty is property right, then the rightful basis of property right isthat all are born free and equal. Hence Locke sets up the contract between modernfreedom and property right for the first time, and the argument of liberty and propertyright constitutes a complete circle.First of all, the property right means not only the holding of the object, but alsonatural right based on life and liberty, which is heaven-born and sacrosanct. Thenonly if all kinds of rights, especially property right, are well guaranteed will libertyrealize. Therefore John Locke uses property in two kinds of sense: On the one hand,special property is used to refute Sir Robert Filmer. On the other hand, generalproperty right lays the foundation for Locke’s theory of liberty. The “property”,including life, property, healthy and liberty, is the basic elements of liberty;meanwhile property right has access to the essence of liberty. It is obvious thatLocke’s idea can be called “liberty of rights” or “talent liberty”, both of whom regardthe property right as the core.Secondly, the legitimacy of property right lies on the right to life, namely theunity of self-preservation and human preservation. In the term of human preservation,this donation of God is the original community of all things amongst the sons of men,with its basis the natural liberty and equality of mankind, which endows all people theequal opportunity to gain the resources for survival, so we consider it as publicproperty that cannot be used. Public property must be changed into private one via theway of acquiescence from the community, and Locke states that labor is the onlylegitimate means. Every man has a property in his own person: this no body has anyright to but himself. The labors of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say,are properly his. Locke blesses the labor and suggests that people can hold thedifferent share of the property through the different degree hard-working, but which must be in two principles for the premise: one is decay principle; another isabundance and limit principle. Through the argument of private property, Locke aimsto show that liberty must be through the individual to achieve, but the purpose is notwell organized personal liberty but human liberty which means all are free and equalvia the realization of personal liberty.Finally, the liberty Locke emphasizes constantly is law liberty. Law lies on theinconvenience of natural state, so the government must be established to protectproperty (right) and regard it as the first purpose of government, which guarantee thepeople’s peace and stability through effective laws enacted often. On the one hand, thelaw ensures and expands the liberty, but on the other hand it also limits the liberty.Liberty is not luxurious one, also is not unlimited absolute one, but it takes the law asthe basis, because liberty means no manacle, and “where there is no law, there is nofreedom”, and this freedom is different from talent freedom, it is one that can beguaranteed and realized when people are willing to give up state of nature and enterinto the political society.To sum up, Locke tries to legislate for modern freedom through the argument ofproperty right. The establishment of property right lies on talent liberty, when peoplegive up natural state and turn to chose political society, talent liberty must be reducedto political liberty, and meanwhile the reality of the political freedom depends on theprotection of property right. In short, the property right is always the first condition torealize modern freedom, and only property right can have access to the key offreedom and realize the freedom.