Second Treatise of Government

The Second Treatise of Government begins with a short Preface with three distinct purposes. First, Locke quickly recaps what the First Treatise was about and assures readers that they need not have read it to understand what he discusses in this particular essay. Second, he introduces what may as well be the main antagonistic force of both treatises: Robert Filmer, a contemporary of Locke’s who argued for absolute monarchy based on his personal interpretation of the creation story in the Book of Genesis.

Third, Locke says that he’s open to criticism and acknowledges that there may be flaws with some sections of his proposition. Locke accepts this and asks that anyone who does seek to critique his work doesn’t do it based on technicalities or with overly effusive emotion. He only wants genuine, rational, and structural critiques, not nit-picks or overblown arguments based on rage.

Locke recaps the arguments from the previous treatise which he uses as a baseline for his propositions and theses throughout this essay. He argues that Adam, despite being the progenitor of the human race, had no right over his children; God gave the Earth to humankind in common, and to presuppose that Adam’s own will superseded that of the rest of his kind is nonsensical.