Hello I have been looking into the political philosphy of John Locke and I stumbled upon the idea of Lockean Proviso and I can’t seem to understand it can someone please help me?
In: 2
Part of John Locke’s theory on property ownership is that one becomes the owner of an unowned property by mixing labor with the land to produce value. So, if you find a piece of unowned land and you start farming it, that land – and the crops it produces – are yours because you are the one that used your labor to put the land to productive use.
The Lockean Proviso is a small exception to this – you can only claim ownership of that land by adding labor **if** there is still enough land left over for others to do the same. You can’t claim _all_ of the common land as your own, because that would be inherently unfair to others that wish to take land and use it productively for themselves.
Latest Answers