GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

SOCIETY. ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN 485
The law of nature was primarily a law of reason* That
they should obey
reason and seek to do what is reasonable
is, therefore, a basic law of men's nature, the originator
of which is God. It is his subjection to reason which
accounts for the natural mildness and sociability of man.
The following quotation summarizes the fundamentals
of Locke's philosophy:
"The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it,
which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law,
teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all
equal and* independent, no one ought to harm another
in his life, health, liberty or possessions; for men being all
the workmanship of one omnipotent and infinitely wise
Maker ; all the servants of one sovereign Master, sent into
the world by His order and about His business; they are
His property, whose workmanship they are made to last
during His, not one another's pleasure." The corollaries
are (i) that all men are by nature equal and independent,
and (2) that every man possesses initially certain rights,
rights, namely, to the preservation of life, liberty, health,
knd goods, which he brings with him into society and of
which he cannot be deprived.
What need, it may
Locke and the Origin of Society.
be asked, has this so amiably conceived creature to form a
for the sake
society? He forms it, Locke answers, mainly
of convenience. A thorough-going pragmatist, Locke does
not seek to lay down any ethical basis for the State; his
concern is not .with right but with convenience. A system,
or lack of system, under which everybody was judge in
his own cause, was found to be a nuisance; moreover, there
are some matters in which uniformity is essential. Ethically
it is of no importance whether the traffic goes to the right
of the road or to the left; what is important is uniformity;
if, for example, the rule of the road is that traffic should
go to the left, it- is essential that nobody should be permitted
to go to the right. Moreover, says Locke, although
men are on the whole reasonable and as a general rule