Examining philosophy requires an in-depth look at two aspects of the philosopher. First one must examine their writings to grasp their points and perspectives, and then one must be able to examine the personal lives of philosophers to see whether they maintain their written philosophies or whether they live their lives according to alternative standards. The examination of John Locke thus becomes intrinsically necessary and extremely complicated. Often described as an incredibly virtuous man and portrayed as the founder of modern democracy, Locke is actually a much more complex human being than many realize. Although John Locke appears to condemn slavery on paper, his actions reveal a man torn between accepting and condemning slavery. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay According to Locke, only a certain type of slavery is inappropriate. In his Second Treatise on Government, Locke openly protests against slavery in which the slave is owned as property by the slaveholder and subsequently the slave no longer has in his possession the rights granted to him in the state of nature. Locke explicitly states, “For a man, having no power over his own life, cannot, by covenant or consent, make himself the slave of any” (Locke 22). With this statement Locke firmly and pointedly opposes what was the growing popularity of chattel slavery, or "property" at the time. This practice involved slaves relinquishing power over their lives to owners who then used them at their discretion. Locke writes: "No man can give more power than he himself has"; in essence, he believes that since no man has full power over his own life (such power is reserved for God) he cannot under any circumstances surrender himself, his life, and his freedom to any other man (Locke 22). Locke, at least in his writings, seems fully prepared to combat the growing rise of property slavery, perhaps even to the point of losing his own standing in the public eye and in government. Furthermore, according to this principle of his philosophy Locke would consider the growing practice of enslaving Africans in North America to be wrong and illegal because it is a clear slavery of property. Despite this vaunted position that Locke takes towards chattel slavery, he condones slavery under certain conditions. In his Second Treatise Locke deals with two types of slavery. First there is “retributive” 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 the person who has committed an act deserving of death is retarded by the person he has attacked so that he can render him useful for his services ( Locke 22). This form of slavery is modernly defined as imprisonment. Simply put, someone who has done harm must enter into a contract with those they have harmed to obtain punishment for their actions. This idea is often called punishment slavery because the criminal tries to make up for what he has done by giving up his services to the government or to the person he has harmed in some way. The other type of slavery that Locke recognizes is that found in the Bible. He only condones it because “it is clear that it was only drudgery, not slavery” (Locke 23). He says that the Jews were not under full control because the master did not have the power to kill them at will; so, this was not chattel slavery and it was so.