Examination of philosophy requires a close examination of two aspects of the philosopher. One must first examine their writings to understand their arguments and perspectives, and then one must be able to examine the personal lives of philosophers to see whether they maintain their written philosophies or live their lives according to alternative standards. The examination of John Locke therefore becomes intrinsically necessary and extremely delicate. Often described as an incredibly virtuous man and touted as the founder of modern democracy, Locke is actually a much more complex human being than many people realize. Although John Locke appears to condemn slavery on paper, his actions reveal a man torn between acceptance and condemnation of slavery. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayAccording to Locke, only a certain type of slavery is inappropriate. In his Second Treatise on Government, Locke protests against outright slavery, in which the slave is owned as property by the slave owner and the slave no longer has in his possession the rights conferred on him in the state of nature. Locke explicitly states, “For a man, not having the power of his own life, cannot, by contract or by his own consent, enslave himself to any man” (Locke 22). With this statement, Locke strongly and clearly opposed what was at the time the growing popularity of slavery, or "property" slavery. This practice required slaves to cede power over their own lives to owners who then used them at their discretion. Locke writes: “No one can give more power than he himself has”; in essence, he believes that since no man has full power over his own life (that power is reserved for God), he can under no circumstances surrender himself, his life and his liberty to another man (Locke 22). Locke, at least in his writings, seems quite prepared to fight against the growing rise of property slavery, perhaps even to the point where he would lose his own reputation in the eyes of the public and the government. Furthermore, according to this tenet of his philosophy, Locke would view the growing practice of enslaving Africans in North America as wrong and illegal because it was blatant property slavery. Despite this much-vaunted stance that Locke takes toward slavery, he condones slavery under certain conditions. In his Second Treatise, Locke discusses two types of slavery. First, there is “retribution” slavery, which he summarizes as the perfect condition of slavery: it involves limited power on one side of the contract and obedience on the other (Locke 23). It is also defined by Locke as the continuation of a state of war in which one who has committed an act which merits death is granted a delay by the one he has attacked so that he can make it useful to his own services. Locke 22). This form of slavery is modernly defined as imprisonment. Simply put, someone who has done wrong must enter into a contract with those they have wronged in order to get revenge for their actions. This idea is often called retribution slavery, because the criminal compensates for what he or she has done by giving up his or her services to benefit the government or someone he or she has harmed in some way. The other type of slavery recognized by Locke is that found in the Bible. He tolerates this only because “it is clear that this was only hard work and not slavery” (Locke 23). He says the Jews were not under total control because the.