Locke’s natural man is political and moral before property makes him self-interested.

Evidence

It highlights, for example, the intensely political quality of life in Locke’s state of nature before property is introduced. In this early condition, as Locke tells the story in the Second Treatise, we are not mere self-preservationists, but responsible for discerning, judging, and executing the law of nature on behalf of the common. Before the social contract, we have in our own hands, and as part of our moral obligation to God and one another, the powers of executing and enforcing natural law in the name of communal justice and preservation. These markedly political powers and this markedly political orientation are what we will eventually confer to political institutions when we enter the social contract. Of course, this primordial politicalness in Locke’s state of nature is dampened by the intensification of individual interest that property introduces into that state. However, this politicalness never fades completely from the project of making the social contract or from its purpose and legitimacy. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 187

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges the common Lockean-proprietor reading, connecting to C.B. Macpherson’s possessive individualism thesis. — connects to: Locke grounded legitimate rule in individual property rights, separating state from market — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 278; Locke grounded morality in the voluntary action of a sovereign subject — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 639; Hume held that shared perceived self-interest, not morals, first obliges promise-keeping. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2796 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: whether this political Locke reading holds against the standard liberal-property interpretation, and how much weight Brown gives to the property-soaked Second Treatise as a whole.

Broader Connections

• Locke grounded morality in the voluntary action of a sovereign subject #expands (0.78) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 639
• Hobbesian man is too self-interested to found any genuine body politic #qualifies (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 383
• Hume held that shared perceived self-interest, not morals, first obliges promise-keeping. #corroborates (0.72) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2796