Second Treatise of Government, Chapter 15 summary
Chapter 15 of 19 · Book 2 · 5 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 15, the narrator distinguishes parental, political, and despotic power by their origins, purposes, and limits, rejecting their confusion as a source of mistakes about government. Parental care serves children, political authority protects consenting subjects, and despotic control arises only through forfeiture in a just war.
What happens
- The narrator identifies confusion between three kinds of power as a source of errors about government.
- Parents guide children until they can understand their governing law, without gaining control over their lives or property.
- Political power comes from consent and must preserve the community rather than give governors arbitrary control.
- Despotic power arises when unjust aggressors forfeit their lives; making an agreement with a captive ends that absolute control.
- The narrator contrasts each power’s source and purpose, insisting that absolute dominion cannot constitute civil society.
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What ends a captor’s despotic power over a captive?
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