Lyons and Tygers and Wolves, Oh My! Human Equality and the “Dominion Covenant” in Locke’s Two Treatises

Bibliographic Data

ID6352116
AuthorsJishnu Guha-Majumdar (0000-0002-7762-4044, Queen's University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume49
Issue4
Pages637-661
Publication date2021-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0090591720960438
OpenAlexW3088037499
LanguageEN
Citations received5

This essay reads John Locke’s Two Treatises through its nonhuman animal presences, especially the emblematic figures of cattle and “noxious creatures” like “lyons,” “tygers,” and wolves. It argues that the real ground of Lockean human equality is an ongoing practice of subjugating nonhuman animals, and not any attribute of the human species as such. More specifically, the Lockean social compact founded on this equality relies on a “dominion covenant,” an existential “agreement” in which God lends the power of dominion to man and any threats to this order require punishment. This dynamic enables violence toward humans, in the name of their humanity, if they do not properly exert their power of dominion. Critics have connected Locke’s theory of property to indigenous dispossession and his theory of punishment to carceral systems; both processes, I argue, intimately rely on the dominion covenant. Lockean racism is the fulfillment of, and not a deviation from, his account of human equality

Covenant · Creatures · Dominion · Environmental ethics · Humanity · Indigenous · Natural (archaeology · Political science · Power (physics · Punishment (psychology · Sociology · Stewardship (theology · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Ecology · Historical Philosophy and Science · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment

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