Locke's The Second Treatise of Civil Government: The Significance of Reason The significance of reason is discussed both in John Locke's, The Second Treatise of Civil Government, and in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's, Emile. However, the definitions that both authors give to the word “reason” vary significantly. I will now attempt to compare the different meanings that each man considered to be the accurate definition of reason. John Locke believed that the state “all men are naturally in ... is a state of perfect freedom” (122), a state in which they live “without ... depending upon the will of any other man” (122). It is called the “t