What is Equality? Equality in John Locke's Second Treatise
What is equality? Equality is a loaded term that can be used many different ways. It could be utilized to describe the same political rights that people may have, including males and females. Or it can be applied to describing the identical opportunity for one to accrue wealth. With a myriad of different uses and interpretations, equality is a confusing concept that can be hard to grasp. However, John Locke in the Second Treatise of Government outlines his theory of equality and how it works in his political society, known as the common-wealth. This political community, as will be discussed in greater detail, is constituted of all people because they are inherently born with the natural right to be free from subjugation. This natural equality is the foundation for civilization as it leads people out of an isolated existence into a political community. The aforementioned is envisioned through the passage of humans traveling from the state of nature into family organizations that gain properties and then ultimately towards a political society.
Prior to substantiating the argument of Locke’s theory of equality as the foundation for his common-wealth state, it must first be understood. The natural equality of all people, as written by Locke in the Second Treatise emphasizes that all men are born in an equal state. No one is greater or lesser than another and therefore subject to no one, unless one willfully permits. “A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another…that creatures of the same race and rank …should also be equal one amongst each other without subordination or subjection.” This type of equality stresses that all people are free from being ruled or dominated by another person or group. However, Locke writes later in the same paragraph that they are equal and free “unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest...