Poli 212 – Prof Sammy Basu

Locke on Property

Metaphysical Assumptions:

God, intentional and active in the world

World, exists to serve human purposes

Individuals, come from God, are obliged to do God’s work in/with world.

Epistemology:

Know this by observation and unaided reason but also through revelation (consultation of bible)

Big Question. (2T, ch.5, p.273)

Locke's ‘state of nature’ = a pre-political condition of freedom and equality, subject to restraints of the divinely established law of nature knowable by human reason and hence open to due rights of punishment and reparations.

So, as such, where do private property rights come from? (sect 25:273).

Given that the Earth was originally given by God to man in common (as the Communist Diggers of the 1640s insisted), how do fragments of nature, initially available to everyone collectively, become owned by specifiable individuals, and without express consent of those others?

Put differently, how is ‘Appropriation’ or ‘Enclosure’ justified?

Locke's Big Answer:

5 lines of argument:

1. Divine purpose: (sect. 26: 274)

Man is the ‘workmanship’ and hence property of God (sect 6:264; 56: 288).

Man is obliged by God and necessity to survive and not destroy self or others (sect 6:264).

Earth was created for humans to use and thrive (Gen).

God commands man to labor (sect. 32: 277) and appropriate (sect. 35: 278).

As a matter of physical necessity, objects cannot be used or consumed except individually.

Hence, there must be an orderly way to individually appropriate.

2. Labor-Mixing (physical workmanship): (sect 27: 274)

i. I (and no others) own my body (see also sect. 44: 283).

ii. Thus, I own my labor (an activity of my body).

iii. When I cultivate land, gather apples, etc., I mix my labor, if not part of myself, with these objects (sect. 32: 277) (akin to sweat equity).

iv. Therefore laboring on or with the land, makes the resulting objects mine.

3. Labor-Marking (mental workmanship): (sect.28: 275)

i. I own my body (and its products) and also my mind (and its mental products). (sect. 26: 274)

ii. I place my ideas and intentions in objects when I identify their human utility and value.

iii. Objects so marked or distinguished or altered (sect 37. 280) become mine

-- (akin to intellectual copyright or ‘hey that was my idea first’).

4. Value-Added (sect. 32: 276-7)

None worse off, or actually, … will be better off ...

Given the low value of raw nature or waste (sect. 36: 279)

-- 1/10tth or 1/100^th or 1/1000^th of value is natural (sect. 40: 281; 42: 282)

-- nature is almost worthless (sect. 43: 283)

And that God commands to engage in ‘Cultivation’ and ‘Improvement’ (sect. 32: 277)

I add to intrinsic value by individually arranging for greater human utility (sect. 37: 279)

It wouldn’t have happened without me.

Everyone benefits from this increased productivity.

5. Divine Reward for Industry (sect. 34: 277)

Labor is hard work. It involves ‘the sweat of my brow’ (Gen 3:19-20).

It takes pains. (sect. 30: 276, 32: 277, 37: 280)

God intends that the rational and industrious (ie the entrepreneur) be rewarded.

Not the covetous/luxurious (lazy rich) or contentious (unsuccessful poor and serfs).

Private property is the incentive without which the labor would not happen.

What Limits on acquisition? On engrossing?

Answer: the "Lockean provisos":

· Don’t take more than you can use without ‘spoiling’. (sect. 31: 276)

· You must leave ‘enough and as good’ for others. (sect. 33: 277)

· ‘confine every man’s possession to a very moderate proportion’ (sect. 36: 278)

But …

Productivity

And

Money (sect.36-37: 279)

and since this is a consensual medium, … human societies have accepted material inequality (sect.50: 285)

and that the ‘overplus’ or surplus value or profit goes to the man possessing (sect.50: 286)

Locke’s Big Implications:

1. Labor marks and enclosures, and also money

and hence also private property and wealth differentials,

‘grass … turfs … ore’ (sect. 28: 275)

are all the marks and enclosures

that constitute human civilization (sect. 30:275)

so that there is no room for criticism (sect. 39: 281)

the ‘property of labor’ trumps ‘community of land’ (sect. 40: 281)

and ‘money’ trumps ‘labor’ (286)

2. Purpose of politics: to preserve ‘property’

Property – proprius, proper to:

1. Property as characteristic essence, (eg chemical property)

2. Property – right appropriate to .. )or ‘have a property in’ (274),

3. Property – right (property2) to the property1 of the thing.

Locke on Property = private right to

i. ‘Life, liberty, & estate’ (304) – property 123

or

ii. ‘Estate’ property3

if 1. Then politics protects everyone (as the radically democratic Levellers in the 1640s argued)

if 2. Then politics protects or at least favors those in proportion to the size of their estates (sect. 50-51: 286)

3. Spreading a ‘property’ regime civilizes its recipients

Private property legalism and markets

Capitalism

Globalization

Justification of Colonization

--- of what is still ‘waste’, unproductive, non-monetarized or even if enclosed, done so unproductively

e.g. the Americas (sect.49: 285; 41: 281; 45: 284, 74: 298)

Locke and the Carolinas (circa 1669)

– not democratic, insist on property qualification, own indentured servants, own slaves & ignore natives

(211, 224, 215, 230)