Locke's Political Philosophy: Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)

Locke’s Political Philosophy
First published Wed Nov 9, 2005; substantive revision Mon Jan 11, 2016
John Locke (1632–1704) is among the most influential political philosophers of the
modern period. In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men
are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally
subject to a monarch. He argued that people have rights, such as the right to life,
liberty, and property, that have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular
society. Locke used the claim that men are naturally free and equal as part of the
justification for understanding legitimate political government as the result of a social
contract where people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights
to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their
lives, liberty, and property. Since governments exist by the consent of the people in
order to protect the rights of the people and promote the public good, governments
that fail to do so can be resisted and replaced with new governments. Locke is thus
also important for his defense of the right of revolution. Locke also defends the
principle of majority rule and the separation of legislative and executive powers. In
the Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke denied that coercion should be used to bring
people to (what the ruler believes is) the true religion and also denied that churches
should have any coercive power over their members. Locke elaborated on these
themes in his later political writings, such as the Second Letter on Toleration and Third
Letter on Toleration.
What did Locke believe the role of government should be?
Everyone gains the security of knowing that their rights to life, liberty, and property are
protected. According to Locke, the main purpose of government is to protect those
natural rights that the individual cannot effectively protect in a state of nature.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469—1527)

Machiavelli was a 16th century Florentine philosopher known primarily for his political
ideas. His two most famous philosophical books, The Prince and the Discourses on Livy,
were published after his death. His philosophical legacy remains enigmatic, but that result
should not be surprising for a thinker who understood the necessity to work sometimes
from the shadows. There is still no settled scholarly opinion with respect to almost any
facet of Machiavelli’s philosophy. Philosophers disagree concerning his overall intention,
the status of his sincerity, the status of his piety, the unity of his works, and the content of
his teaching.
His influence has been enormous. Arguably no philosopher since antiquity, with the
possible exception of Kant, has affected his successors so deeply. Indeed, the very list
of these successors reads almost as if it were the history of modern political philosophy
itself. Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Bayle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Smith,
Montesquieu, Fichte, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche number among those whose ideas ring
with the echo of Machiavelli’s thought. Even those who apparently rejected the
foundations of his philosophy, such as Montaigne, typically regarded Machiavelli as a
formidable opponent and deemed it necessary to engage with the implications of that
philosophy.
What were Niccolo Machiavelli's beliefs?

Machiavelli believed as a ruler, it was better to be widely feared than to be greatly loved;
A loved ruler retains authority by obligation while a feared leader rules by fear of
punishment.
What is Rousseau's theory?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) was a French philosopher and writer of the Age
of Enlightenment. His Political Philosophy, particularly his formulation of social
contract theory (or Contractarianism), strongly influenced the French Revolution and the
development of Liberal, Conservative and Socialist theory.
What was Rousseau view on education?

Politics and philosophy
Rousseau seeks to describe a system of education that would enable the natural man
he identifies in The Social Contract (1762) to survive corrupt society. He employs the
novelistic device of Emile and his tutor to illustrate how such an ideal citizen might be
educated.
What did Jean Jacques Rousseau believe?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau strongly believed in the innate goodness of man and in basic
human rights founded upon universal natural law; in addition, he believed that both rulers
and the citizens have natural human rights as well as obligations to each other which
should be bound in a social contract.

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Locke’s Political Philosophy

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469—1527)

What were Niccolo Machiavelli's beliefs?

What is Rousseau's theory?

What was Rousseau view on education?

What did Jean Jacques Rousseau believe?

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