John Locke Nature And State Of War Analysis

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Introduction
John Locke introduced the two treatise of government and they are the state of nature and the state of war. These two treatises of government are basically giving us an idea of a state of men before government interferes in their lives. These two are suggest different ways of dealing with a dispute or whatever situation there maybe. They are telling us the nature of man in the absence of government or judge whereby men are able to make decisions on their problems. This paper is going to compare and contrast the two.
The state of war
The state of war is against what is suggested by the state of nature which is that a man cannot harm another man’s life but in the state of war one is able to do so.
The state of war is a state of hostility and destruction; so declaring by talking or action, not a passionate a settled design on another man’s life, putting him in a state of war with him against whom he has professed such an intention. This is the state whereby a man is able to take an unfriendly action to the one who had threatened him or had an intention of putting him in a state of war.
In the state of war if a man has exposed his life to the other man’s power, he is giving the other man’s power/ right to compel him by force to which is against the right of his freedom (make him a slave). This state makes it lawful for a man to kill a thief even if he did not hurt anyone. If a man threatens the other by the means of destruction he permits the other’s own defence and the right of war, freedom to kill him (the aggressor) because the aggressor refuses the common judge. The state of war ceases when the actual force is over.
State of nature
A state in which men are naturally in must be considered and that is being free to ...

... middle of paper ...

... has been hit by a car would want to punish the owner of the car. These are not of the same value but because of the law of nature everyone should receive equal treatment. Same thing applies in the state of war someone may find wrong evidence on someone being a thief and then he receive punishment he didn’t deserve.
In concluding this, in my opinion these two treatises put at risk the state of fairness because as I have mentioned in the previous paragraph one cannot have absolute truth on what he heard about the other and this may lead to conflict. Looking at these two one may conclude that the state of nature may lead into the state of war because as men are allowed to be judge of themselves in the state of nature there are small chances for them to judge outside interest of themselves and this brings quarrel between the aggressor and the one whose right is harmed.

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