John Locke addresses the state of Nature because he believes that it is the basic rule of men when a government has not yet been agreed upon. Through his example with Adam, Locke explains that no man is inherently given supreme authority above others and that all men are born with equal rights and responsibilities (7). In the state of Nature, all men have the right to “life, liberty or possessions”; and if those rights are threatened or taken away, each man has the right to punish the person who wronged them (9). However, violence is not condoned as all men are supposed to show “mutual love” and respect to one another (8). As men are innately in the state of Nature, Locke seems to feel that a country cannot ignore the laws of Nature in the laws it creates for its government. For if the state of Nature is the building blocks for how men live without a government in place, men would still feel the need to follow the laws of Nature even after a government has been created.
Locke believes the state of Nature should be included when creating a government; however, a man leaves the state of Nature when he enters “some politic society” in which the rights given by Nature are taken away (12). Therefore, if a man allows his government, whichever form it may be, to take away his basic right to “life, liberty and possessions” he has essentially given up and left the state of Nature. Only in a government in which those rights are protected can a man enter a politic society without leaving the state of Nature.
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