Consent & Rights
Where a government's authority comes from
Consent and Rights
John Locke saw the state of nature more hopefully. Even without government, he argued, people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property that no one may violate. Government exists only by the consent of the governed, to protect those rights, and when it betrays that trust, the people may replace it.
“No one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”
Where this sits in the course
“Consent & Rights” is lesson 2 of 3 in Power & the State, a course about why governments exist, when authority is legitimate, and when it fails.. The lessons are sequenced rather than a menu, so this one assumes what came before it.
Power & the State is itself one of 18 courses in thinkr. The set opens with what philosophy is, moves through the Stoics and the Eastern traditions, then into what can be known, what exists, how to act and how power works — closing on practical reasoning you can use in an argument this week.
More from John Locke
“No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”
“The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.”
“But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.”
In the app this lesson is followed by 3 exercises that check whether the idea actually landed — and every answer, right or wrong, is explained rather than scored. That is the part a written page cannot reproduce.