The one thing that Locke emphasizes throughout the Treatise is that the main end or purpose for which the State or Commonwealth is formed is to secure to the citizens the natural right to life. , freedom and property that they had in the state of nature. In this state of nature, according to Locke, men are born free and equal: free to do what they want without being obliged to ask permission of another man, and equal in the feeling that there is no of natural political authority of one man over another. But he quickly points out that “although it is a state of liberty, it is not a state of license,” for it is governed by the law of nature which everyone is obliged to obey. Although Locke is not very specific about the content of the law of nature, he is clear on some details. Firstly, that “reason, which is this law, teaches all humanity who is willing to consult it” and secondly, that it mainly teaches that “being all equal and independent, no one must harm others in their life, his liberty or his possessions.” Thus, from the beginning, Locke places the right to possession on the same level as the right to life, health and liberty. It can be said that Locke conceived of all natural rights as things that an individual brings with him from birth, and therefore as unassailable or inviolable claims on both society and government. Such claims can never be justly dismissed, since society itself exists to protect them; they can only be regulated to the extent necessary to provide them with effective protection. In other words, a person's “life, liberty, and estate” can only be limited to give effect to another person's equally valid claims to the same right. According to Locke, the state of ...... middle of paper. .....nature. As Locke himself says: the obligations of the laws of nature do not cease in society. There is therefore a double constraint on the body politic; he must respect the natural rights to liberty of life and property enjoyed by men in the state of nature and conform to the laws of nature itself. In short, unlike Hobbes's social contract which gives absolute and unlimited powers to the sovereign ruler, Locke's original contract gives only limited powers to the community; it is not a bond of slavery but a charter of freedom. In Locke's hands, contract theory is designed to serve the purpose for which it was originally stated; namely, defending the freedom of the individual against the claim to absolute authority on the part of the ruler. It is hardly necessary to point out that Locke uses it to preserve as much as possible the natural freedom of the individual..