WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS AND LIMITS OF POLITICAL POWER / TUTORIALOUTLET WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS AND LIMITS OF POLITICAL POW | Page 8

provides a comprehensive statement of
what it requires. In the Two Treatises, Locke frequently states that the
fundamental law of nature is that as
much as possible mankind is to be preserved. Simmons argues that in
Two Treatises 2.6 Locke presents 1)
a duty to preserve one's self, 2) a duty to preserve others when self-
preservation does not conflict, 3) a duty
not to take away the life of another, and 4) a duty not to act in a way
that “tends to destroy” others. Libertarian interpreters of Locke tend
to downplay duties of type 1 and 2. Locke presents a more extensive
list in his earlier, and unpublished in his lifetime, Essays on the Law
of Nature. Interestingly, Locke here
includes praise and honor of the deity as required by natural law as
well as what we might call good
character qualities. 2. State of Nature
Locke's concept of the state of nature has been interpreted by
commentators in a variety of ways. At first
glance it seems quite simple. Locke writes “want [lack] of a common
judge, with authority, puts all persons
in a state of nature” and again, “Men living according to reason,
without a common superior on earth, to
judge between them, is properly the state of nature.” (Two Treatises
2.19) Many commentators have taken
this as Locke's definition, concluding that the state of nature exists
wherever there is no legitimate political
authority able to judge disputes and where people live according to
the law of reason. On this account the
state of nature is distinct from political society, where a legitimate
government exists, and from a state of
war where men fail to abide by the law of reason.
Simmons presents an important challenge to this view. Simmons
points out that the above statement is
worded as a sufficient rather than necessary condition. Two
individuals might be able, in the state of nature,
to authorize a third to settle disputes between them without leaving
the state of nature, since the third party
would not have, for example, the power to legislate for the public