Singers Rarely Read

Roderick was excited about reading Locke's Two Treatises of Government. Thus, he is disappointed to discover that the middle section of Locke's draft, intended for insertion between the first and second treatises, is missing and lost to history. "Bummer," he thinks. "I thought this book was a bargain."

In class, Mr. Parvelescu launches into his lecture.

The first thing you should know about Locke's Two Treatises is that you can ignore the first treatise and the first chapter of the second treatise, since all of that was dropped from the editions available to Enlightenment thinkers and the Founders of the American Republic.

Well thank you very much for telling us that now, thinks Roderick. I can think of better ways to spend a Sunday than trying to decipher Locke's fisking of Robert Filmer. Talk about your straw man arguments -- as if anyone believes in the divine right of kings.

Mr. Parvelescu continues:

So we're going to jump ahead to the second treatise. Here, Locke continues in the Hobbesean tradition of arguing from a state of nature, but Locke's concept of 'nature' differs from Hobbes'. To Hobbes, 'nature" is a state of anarchy and lawlessness, in which life is nasty, brutish and short. To Locke, the state of nature is governed by unwritten natural laws which, because they are unwritten, are subject to conflicting interpretation. Since there is no authority in the state of 'nature', Locke argues, there is no way to adjudicate conflicts, which are consequently settled by force of arms and war.

Thus, while Hobbes argues that civil authority (and the sovereign) are necessary to save us from ourselves, Locke argues that civil authority is a means to clarifying norms and settling conflict without war.

After class, Roderick stops at the Dining Hall to grab a bite. He sees that Anna is sitting with Emily Pointe, the girl who sat with them a week ago. He joins them.

Anna introduces him. "Roderick, this is Emily Pointe."

Roderick waves. "Yes, I remember. You sat with us last week."

"Emily is studying dance."

Ah, thinks Roderick. That explains the small breasts. He tries to think of a way to bring this up for discussion, and concludes that there is no way to do so. "That's nice," he says.

"Were you in class just now?" asks Anna of Roderick.

Roderick takes a bite out of his tuna sandwich. "Yes, Mr. Parvelescu's Foundations of Politics. We're studying Locke's Two Treatises of Government, though actually we're just studying the second because we skipped over the first even though I spent Sunday afternoon reading it."

Wow, thinks Emily. He reads John Locke. Maybe he will fuck me if I treat him nice.

"I haven't read anything by John Locke," says Anna. Neither Roderick nor Emily is surprised by this statement, since Anna is a singer and singers rarely read anything at all.