Locke’s concept of natural rights.

 Locke’s concept of natural rights. 

Locke while taking us through an  imaginary state of pre civil pre political state of nature, quite similar to Hobbes, only major difference was that the characterised the state of nature into totally contrasting scenarios. He described life in a pre civil one to be calm and peaceful, where everyone coexisted with mutual cooperation and tolerance for one another. This was a state of complete freedom where each citizens lived equally in harmony and tranquility.  He also propounded that man was born with a set of pre-existing or pre-given natural rights, and these rights namely-  “right to life, liberty and estate” cannot be undermined by society. He also says  these three natural entitlements of right to life, liberty and property are of equal importance for the basics of a state that are  bestowed by Jesus to his subjects for the purpose of serving god and cannot be alienated from a person. These three laws are interdependent and complement each other, it cannot exist or it  becomes meaningless if the other ones don’t exist at the same time. The right to life cannot just be interpreted as the ‘right to live or exist’ and is not limited to mere physical existence, instead it also means right to access of food and shelter and freedom to acquire these essentials in order to live in a ways that will best help us sustain ourselves. The right to liberty also includes right to communicate and speak freely without any restrictions ,it also means right to produce, earn and do what they seem fit with their produce. Right to estate was not just limited to right it ownership of where one resided, but also meant that had equal rights to resources of the land like rivers, springs, mountains and forests equally. These rights were exercised equally without encroaching upon others rights and liberties. They were self regarding and others regarding in nature. This life seemed to good to be true. Some people came together and after many discussions came in to conclusion that these naturals rights were subject ti over interpretation and misrepresentation which may lead to conflicting situations. So keeping in mind that one dimension may dominate the other, they unanimously decided to give the power of regulating these three natural rights to an authority, placing full faith and trust upon them to ensure fair authority over the interpretations of these rights. Addressing these inconveniences - 1st level  presumed an  agreement among  the people to respect each other’s troika of rights, 2nd level led to the creation of legislature which would uphold the terms of contract, 3 rd level  was establishing judiciary to execute these terms and render legislations contradicting the troika of rights void.

Creation of legislature aimed at conditional to upholding the troika of rights. According to John Locke the people have among themselves transferred power to the sovereign which ensures that natural laws are consistently interpreted and applied in a balanced and coherent position. He is strongly convinced that the sovereign/ authority is created by the people as a hole and thus, the locus of authority lies solely with every individual. The people have every right to overthrow the government if it is inefficient in safeguarding the three “natural rights of right to life, right to Liberty and right to estate” and prove to fail to retain th trust of the people. 

Ans 6 d) Difference between obligation and ought. 

Obligation can be understood as commitment to a person or a group of persons to do or or refuse to do an action which one could justifiably be coerced into doing or punished for failing to do so. Obligations are relational concepts and  are although supported by, but however not derived from, the fear and  threat of coercion.There are three major forces of obligation: interpersonal commitment, legal rule, and moral rules or principles.