Page 118 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes Filmer’s Theory
Filmer contended that patriarchal authority was absolute, and that political authority was analogous
to paternal authority. Having created Adam, God gave him authority over his family, the earth
and its products. Adam was the first king, and present kings derived their rightful authority from
this grant. Adam was both the first father and the first king. Subsequent generations of men were
not born free, but were subject to Adam and his successors with the power of fathers derived from
God. Since God’s original grant to Adam was unconditional, monarchical rule was unlimited. Any
attempt to restrain absolutism would result in a limited or mixed monarchy. Divided sovereignty
would weaken authority. Filmer did not support tyranny, for he made the monarch obey God’s
laws.
Filmer was critical of contractualism, contending that if contractual arguments were true, then it
would result in two unacceptable consequences which its advocates would find hard to explain.
First, it would not be possible to provide for a continuing valid political authority. If all authority
rested on consent, then an individual who had not consented was not bound by the laws, implying
that minorities, dissenters, non-voters (women and children) need not obey the law and a new
ruler if one had not consented to them. This would make society unstable. If on the contrary one
contended that succeeding generations would have to obey because their fathers and forefathers
had expressed their consent, then such an argument did not differ from the one championed by
the patriarchists. Filmer contended, contrary to the contractualists, that men were not born free
but into families, and hence subject to the authority of their fathers. Moreover, relationships of
subordination were natural. Individuals were not equal, for a son was subject to the authority of
his father.
The second argument revolved around property rights. Filmer pointed out that the contractualists
like Grotius and Joha Selden 1584–1654 escaped the absolutist implications of Adam’s dominion
over the world, only by construing God’s grant as a general one given to all mankind in common,
not a private grant to an individual. Filmer thought it was problematic, for one who tried to
defend private property would raise the spectre of communism in economics, just as contractualism
aroused the spectre of anarchy in politics. How could a communal grant give rise to private
property? Why would God have originally ordained community of possession if it were not to
last, and how could the abandonment of this primitive communism be morally binding unless
every single individual had consented to it—of which consent there was no record? How could
such consent be binding on posterity which would surely be born— according to the
contractualists—with its original common right to all?
Filmer thought that those who could explain the origin of government with reference to consent
of free individuals would find it difficult to establish either feasible or morally acceptable political
authority or rightful private possession of goods. Not only did Locke refute Filmer’s patriarchal
theory, but he also had to prove that his criticism of contractualism was absurd. In particular,
Locke had to explain origins of political power and private property, the two central arguments of
Filmer’s anti-contractualism.
In the First Treatise, Locke rejected the central points of Filmer. These were reiterated in the
opening passage” of the Second Treatise. Locke’s arguments were broadly four:
1. God did not give the relevant power to Adam.
2. Assuming Adam had been granted this power did not mean that his heirs had a right to it.
3. Even if Adam’s heirs did have such a right, there were no clear rules of succession according to
which rightful heirs could be named.
4. Even if there were such rules, it would be impossible to identify Adam’s actual heirs, considering
the time span since God’s original grant of power to him (Locke 1960: 307).

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