Theory Of Locke’s Property Rights And Equality

John Lock has been known as one of the most famous philosopher, political theorist of modern times. He has been regarded as the pioneer of liberalism as well as British empiricism. In his master piece, the Second Treatise of Government, he gave the same important status to property right as personal right and liberty rights. This idea has great differences with Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes or Pufendorf, Samuel, Baron von and has become a hot spot since then. Similar to all the other modern political philosophers, liberty and equality is the most important thing for John Lock to demonstrate. A balance between the liberty of private property and equality has always been his striving direction. To him, it concerns the stability and harmony of a nation. Lock takes great efforts to obtain labor efficiency and political equality. He also tried to restrict man’s desire by emphasize on the idea of human liberty. As a result, the moderation correspond to the essential inequality among private property has been the main theme of this paper.The article has four categories. The first chapter introduces Lock’s natural status and the relationship between the private property and equality in natural status. Lock emphasized on god, natural law and natural property from which Lock’s ideas of equality as well as property rights are derived. The second chapter focused on the labor property right theory and its relation to equality. In this chapter, the consistency between labor property right and equality has been damaged since the birth of currency. As a result, Lock tried to use morality to restrict private property. This article will discuss the reason and validity of his restrictions. The third chapter would discuss the relationship between property right and equality after a political society founded. By distinct the political right and individual right, I would like to criticize Royalists Philwheat’s theocracy and paternity theories. I would also like to discuss the restriction of private property from three dimensions, the inheritance, and Lock’s theory of charity and the institution of democratic county and try to find a proper balance between property right and human equality. The fourth part will be the summery.