Quotation
Last reviewed:
“No one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”
John Locke · Empiricism · Early modern · 1689
What does it mean?
Equal independence brings a limit: one's liberty stops at the life, health, liberty, and possessions of another, and that limit is the moral floor of his politics. The usual reading ties the duty to his claim that people are not made for one another's uses. A rival reading takes the sentence as a complete theory of the good life, when it is a constraint on harm, stated before he builds the commonwealth. The words are his English in the Second Treatise, slightly trimmed of the clause that introduces them.
Did John Locke really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Locke's English in the Second Treatise, chapter 2, section 6, slightly trimmed of the opening clause that we are all equal and independent. The full sentence grounds the duty in our being the workmanship of a maker, not made for one another's uses. The core wording is his.
Where it comes from
Second Treatise of Government, chapter 2, §6
Approximate date: 1689.
How to use it
Test a freedom wanted on a Saturday night in Newcastle, a loud gathering in a shared stairwell, against the four items: life, health, liberty, and possessions. If the exercise harms a neighbour in those ways, he thinks one has left liberty and entered licence. The test does not rank every pleasure; It marks the point where a freedom becomes a harm another person can demand be stopped.
A mindset reading
The line is a constraint, not a full account of what a life is for, and it will not settle arguments that are only about taste. He is saying what may not be done to another, on the way to saying how a government holds power in trust. Using it as a slogan for every preference one has dresses a specific limit as a whole ethic.
Understand the philosophy
The Second Treatise argues that government is a trust to protect these rights, and that it can be resisted when it systematically violates them. The key term in the neighbourhood of this sentence is property, which for him begins in the person and in labour, and then extends to possessions. The full sentence grounds the duty in people as the workmanship of a maker. This entry trims that theological clause, and the badge records the trim.
- justice
- freedom
- ethics
FAQ
What does it mean?
Equal independence brings a limit: one's liberty stops at the life, health, liberty, and possessions of another, and that limit is the moral floor of his politics. The usual reading ties the duty to his claim that people are not made for one another's uses. A rival reading takes the sentence as a complete theory of the good life, when it is a constraint on harm, stated before he builds the commonwealth. The words are his English in the Second Treatise, slightly trimmed of the clause that introduces them.
Did John Locke really say this?
Well attested. Locke's English in the Second Treatise, chapter 2, section 6, slightly trimmed of the opening clause that we are all equal and independent. The full sentence grounds the duty in our being the workmanship of a maker, not made for one another's uses. The core wording is his.
Which work is it in?
Second Treatise of Government, chapter 2, §6 Approximate date: 1689.