John Locke (1632-1704) was one of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment and has been called “the Father of Liberalism” (Classical Liberalism or Libertarianism, not modern Liberalism). Locke developed a theory of private property based on the homesteading principle. Most people are familiar with the concept of homesteading land from how the American West was settled. Locke advocated that all private property was at one time acquired by homesteading, wherein a man mixes his labor with an unclaimed resource, giving him a greater claim on it than anyone else and thereby making it an extension of himself. The concept of private property limits the power of the state and the social contract that Hobbes and others conceived because men cannot turn over to the state what is not theirs to give (other people’s property). Locke also proposed that the social contract could be broken if the State didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.
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