John Locke and Environment Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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John Locke was a British empiricist and social/political philosopher whose ideas on property, self-determination, and liberty influenced American politicians such as Thomas Jefferson. Locke asserted that humans initially existed in a God-created state of nature governed by divinely established moral rules that transcend social and economic “best use” considerations.

Locke believed that all humans have the right to sustain themselves and to accumulate wealth as long as they do not harm themselves, one another, or another’s property. All laborers, he declared, must be granted equal access to the resources necessary to sustain themselves while discouraging the overuse or waste of the limited land and resources provided by God.

The Lockean proviso asserted that the right of humans to maximize their freedom to use the planet’s land and resources is limited both by the equal access right of all humans to the land and resources and by the moral obligation not to waste the land and resources provided by God. Individuals may use the land and resources as they deem appropriate as long as they do not waste those resources and do not restrict the right of other humans to control their own lives. This provision was not as restrictive at the close of the 17th century as it is in the 21st century because there were substantially fewer people seeking access to finite land and resources. Today, resources are much scarcer as growing human populations use more land and expend resources while producing waste that the planet must absorb.

Locke did not envision the production of waste from land and resource use. He regarded waste as produced goods that were not used or that spoiled. He asserted that individuals could accumulate as much property and use as many resources as long as they abided by the Lockean proviso. Locke believed that trade, barter, and the use of money to purchase goods or assets eliminated both the inequality of individual overuse, accumulation, and waste by recompensing those whose access to the property or resource was limited by the one accumulating or using the asset. He argued that there is no waste when one accumulates money rather than assets that spoil. Any spoilage or waste is the responsibility of the purchaser. Locke believed that these transactions and the accumulation of monetary wealth were justifiable as long as the land and resources available to all humans were sufficient for all to live without the abrogation of their rights.

Locke believed that the need to protect these accumulated assets, private property, and the rights of all humans involved in these transactions gave rise to social contracts among the participants and the creation of governments to enforce the provisions of the contracts. He also asserted that a government exists as long as the people who formed the government consent to its existence and that consent is contingent on the protection of the rights of the people, especially their private property rights. Locke realized that some humans will accumulate assets at the expense of other humans but implied that it is not the government’s role to equalize these disparities because they result from the proper exchange of assets. He also implied that it was the role of government to moderate inequalities that develop from these disparities, although he does not outline specifics on how this ought to be done.

Bibliography:

John Dunn, The Political Thought of John Locke: An Historical Account of the Argument of the ‘Two Treatises of Government’ (Cambridge University Press, 1983);
W.M. Spellman, John Locke (St. Martin’s Press, 1997);
John W. Yolton, The Two Intellectual Worlds of John Locke: Man, Person, and Spirits in the Essay (Cornell University Press, 2004).