The right of resistance within Locke's theory is based upon a concept logically antithetical either to the state of nature or to the legitimate polity. It derives from the notion of the state of war. The state of war is the historical product of particular human actions and it can be created by these actions whether they are performed in the state of nature or within a legitimate political society. In order to place the right of resistance which Locke affirms, it is necessary to trace the development of this conception of the state of war and its application to the cases of conquest, usurpation, and tyranny. The cumulative movement of the exposition follows the movement of Locke's own argument.

The state of war is initiated by the use of force. Force and violence are the terms which appear throughout the book as the vehicles of disruption to the peace of the state of nature and as solvents of the legitimacy of political society. Force is the way of beasts and it reduces all human beings who perpetrate it to the jural status of beasts. We have seen above the incoherent theoretical structure from which this notion acquires its meaning and derives its resonances, the metaphors of the predator and the cannibal. These beasts are noxious.