John Locke :: Empiricists, Empiricism

Property cannot be made secure by natural right al adept, andfor the better securing of their properties workforce have entered intocivil society. The lead of the body politic, when formed, isdetermined by the will of the majority, and of a bare majority ifthere be no diametric express agreement. For this Locke does notgive any reason but the want of the case it is certain thatmuch worse ones have been given. As a matter of fact, we now knowthat a majority vote has not been generally recognized in archaicsocieties the difficulty of obtaining nominal symmetry wasovercome (as in special cases it still has to be) by variousmethods, including alter elements of force and fiction. Thisdoes not apply to the original agreement to form a society, whichis assumed to be unanimous, and includes only the actual partiesto it. Any one who stands give away may go his ways and provide forhimself elsewhere. It would seem that the community is authoriseto enforce his departure it is certain, o n Lockes principles,that it has not the right to detain him against his will. Couldhe agree to stay in an inferior capacity like that of a residentalien? But it is needless to pursue the auxiliary fictions which superpower be devised. A body politic, then, is formed by consent the meaty term of the agreement is that every member gives up hisnatural legal and executive power to the community (not, asHobbes maintains, to an irresponsible sovereign) and thisconsent is renewed, tacitly if not expressly, in the person ofevery new member for one cannot accept the benefit of a settledgovernment except on those terms on which it is offered. Locke isbold to assert that a child is born a subject of no country orgovernment, and may choose his committal for himself at the ageof discretion this is another opinion which no current lawyer