Rousseau's Reply to Locke

One of the most memorable components of Locke’s treatise is his idea on property. Locke believes that personal rights within property stem from the products of the individual’s labors. Rousseau finds this concept lacking in rationality. Rousseau indirectly replies to Locke by stating, “Even those enriched exclusively by their skills could hardly base their property on better claims. They could very well say: ‘I am the one who built that wall; I have earned this land with my labor.’ In response to them it could be said: ‘Who gave you the boundary lines? By what right do you lay claim to exact payment at our expense for labor we did not impose upon you? Are you unaware that a multitude of your brothers perish or suffer from need of what you have in excess, and that you needed explicit and unanimous consent from the human race for you to help yourself to anything from the common subsistence that went beyond your own immediate needs?’” (78).

            While Rousseau’s reply is very thought provoking, I feel as though it attempts to dismiss the concept of property that Locke addresses simply by saying that communal property and opinion supersedes individual property rights. Essentially, Rousseau and Locke disagree because of a difference of opinion. And because of this, a debate between the two seems fruitless.