The Right To Private Property In John Locke And Humanising The Human Nature

Abstract

This research work attempts to give an expose of the right to private property in John Locke and its relevance to Nigeria regarding humanizing the human nature. The right to Private property is a perennial issue. It is one of the major issues in social and political philosophy that great philosophers across different philosophical epochs (from ancient to contemporary epochs) have preoccupied themselves with. Every philosophy, hitherto, arises and develops out of a particular situation and in a context. The philosophy of private property, therefore, arises from the fundamental human right. This is where this work takes its bearing from to address the challenges of human violations where life and property are not given their right place. In Nigeria for instance, we see the tussle between the government, multinational companies and individuals, where individual properties are being destroyed by the government and multinationals without due consultation and compensation thereby dehumanising humanity. Against the backdrop of the negation and violation of the right to private property, Locke who is considered to be the philosopher of private property holds that the right to private property is natural and just and anyone who mixes his/her labour with nature deserves the right to ownership of private property.  It is the utmost desire and sure hope of this work that it shall go a long way to bring into the subconscious of our whole society, the relevance of the right to private property, the maintenance of life and the importance of self-development resulting to re-humanising.  The method of this research work is therefore expository, analytical and descriptive.