Second Treatise of Government
John Locke · English
John Locke's Two Treatises of Government were published anonymously in 1689, with 1690 on the title page.
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Pagera Editor's Note
John Locke's Two Treatises of Government were published anonymously in 1689, with 1690 on the title page. The first refutes Sir Robert Filmer's defense of the divine right of kings; this edition contains only the second, An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government, taken from an eighteenth-century London printing. Starting from a state of nature governed by natural law, Locke argues that people acquire property by mixing their labor with what nature provides, that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed and exists to preserve their lives, liberties, and estates, and that a people may resist rulers who betray that trust.
Second Treatise of Government
John Locke · English
John Locke's Two Treatises of Government were published anonymously in 1689, with 1690 on the title page.
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Original (English)
Digitized by Dave Gowan. John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” was published in 1690. The complete unabridged text has been republished several times in edited commentaries. This text is recovered entire from the paperback book, “John Locke Second Treatise of Government”, Edited, with an Introduction, By C.B. McPherson, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis and Cambridge, 1980. None of the McPherson edition is included in the Etext below; only the original words contained in the 1690 L
Pagera Editor's Note
John Locke's Two Treatises of Government were published anonymously in 1689, with 1690 on the title page. The first refutes Sir Robert Filmer's defense of the divine right of kings; this edition contains only the second, An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government, taken from an eighteenth-century London printing. Starting from a state of nature governed by natural law, Locke argues that people acquire property by mixing their labor with what nature provides, that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed and exists to preserve their lives, liberties, and estates, and that a people may resist rulers who betray that trust.
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