Scholastic roots of John Locke's theory of property

Abstract

This work deals with the long trajectory that goes from Roman legal thought to Locke's explanation of the origin of property, money and, ultimately, political power (civil government). Vitoria, Suárez and Locke start from considering a primordial prepolitical state (of innocence in Vitoria and Suárez, of nature in Locke) of equal freedom for all (omnium una libertas) and common property (communis omnium possessio), in which humanity could have been before the establishment of the characteristic institutions of the civil state. Despite the presence of elements of continuity with respect to Vitoria and Suárez, by replacing the prelapsary state of innocence with a status naturae that does not require any theological reading, and that Locke places in a truly existing historical time, the English author formulates a strictly secular theory, based on the long tradition of ius naturale, on the origins of civil government and private property.