In this article, I want to show how Jackson’s story can be used to illustrate aspects of Locke’s social contract theory. It describes his ideas on topics such as natural law, the evolution of political society, the social contract, majority rule, and the dissolution of governments. The Two Treatises is considered today to be one of the foundational texts of political liberalism. In fact, in 1689 he published two classic works which have each had a profound effect on the history of philosophy: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which outlined his empiricist philosophy, and Two Treatises of Government, which outlined his political theory.
John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher and physician, and is considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment. I have used the story many times in my American Studies classes – I typically use it as a way of introducing post-WWII American society – but it only recently struck me that this story can also be used to teach certain aspects of Locke’s social contract theory, as found in his Two Treatises of Government.
The story is about a fictional small town in America which conducts an annual ritual known as ‘the lottery’, whose purpose is to choose a human sacrifice to be stoned to death to ensure the community’s well-being and continued prosperity. Shirley Jackson uploaded to Creative Commons by Armen 2020
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