http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/natural-rights Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:34:52 -0400 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:34:52 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/6/john-locke-and-the-second-treatise-on-government By Sawyer A. Theriault - The best way to figure this out, Locke reasoned, was to imagine a state in which no government existed. Then by seeing that state, determine where necessary laws and governing bodies are needed. Locke described the role of civil government like this: “Political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the common-wealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good... Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:24 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/6/john-locke-and-the-second-treatise-on-government