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John Locke (b. 1632, d. 1704) was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. Locke’s monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great defenses of modern empiricism and concerns itself with determining the limits of human understanding in respect to a wide spectrum of topics. It thus tells us in some detail what one can legitimately claim to know and what one cannot. Locke’s association with Anthony Ashley Cooper (later the First Earl of Shaftesbury) led him to become successively a government official charged with collecting information about trade and colonies, economic writer, opposition political activist, and finally a revolutionary whose cause ultimately triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Among Locke’s political works he is most famous for The Second Treatise of Government in which he argues that sovereignty resides in the people and explains the nature of legitimate government in terms of natural rights and the social contract. He is also famous for calling for the separation of Church and State in his Letter Concerning Toleration . Much of Locke’s work is characterized by opposition to authoritarianism. This is apparent both on the level of the individual person and on the level of institutions such as government and church. For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition. He wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them. On the level of institutions it becomes important to distinguish the legitimate from the illegitimate functions of institutions and to make the corresponding distinction for the uses of force by these institutions. Locke believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth, and determine the legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society both in respect to its material and spiritual welfare. This in turn, amounts to following natural law and the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity.

1.1 Locke’s Life up to His Meeting with Lord Ashley in 1666

1.2 locke and lord shaftesbury 1666 to 1688, 1.3 the end of locke’s life 1689–1704, 2.2 book ii, 2.3 book iii, 2.4 book iv, 2.5 knowledge and probability, 2.6 reason, faith and enthusiasm, 3. locke’s major works on education, 4.1 the second treatise of government, 4.2 human nature and god’s purposes, 4.3 of war and slavery, 4.4 of property, 4.5 the social contract theory, 4.6 the function of civil government, 4.7 rebellion and regicide, 5. locke and religious toleration, primary sources, secondary sources, other internet resources, related entries, 1. historical background and locke’s life.

John Locke (1632–1704) was one of the greatest philosophers in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century. Locke grew up and lived through one of the most extraordinary centuries of English political and intellectual history. It was a century in which conflicts between Crown and Parliament and the overlapping conflicts between Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics swirled into civil war in the 1640s. With the defeat and death of Charles I, there began a great experiment in governmental institutions including the abolishment of the monarchy, the House of Lords and the Anglican church, and the establishment of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate in the 1650s. The collapse of the Protectorate after the death of Cromwell was followed by the Restoration of Charles II—the return of the monarchy, the House of Lords and the Anglican Church. This period lasted from 1660 to 1688. It was marked by continued conflicts between King and Parliament and debates over religious toleration for Protestant dissenters and Catholics. This period ends with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in which James II was driven from England and replaced by William of Orange and his wife Mary. The final period during which Locke lived involved the consolidation of power by William and Mary, and the beginning of William’s efforts to oppose the domination of Europe by the France of Louis XIV, which later culminated in the military victories of John Churchill—the Duke of Marlborough.

Locke was born in Wrington to Puritan parents of modest means. His father was a country lawyer who served in a cavalry company on the Puritan side in the early stages of the English Civil War. His father’s commander, Alexander Popham, became the local MP, and it was his patronage which allowed the young John Locke to gain an excellent education. In 1647 Locke went to Westminster School in London.

From Westminster school he went to Christ Church, Oxford, in the autumn of 1652 at the age of twenty. As Westminster school was the most important English school, so Christ Church was the most important Oxford college. Education at Oxford was medieval. Locke, like Hobbes before him, found the Aristotelian philosophy he was taught at Oxford of little use. There was, however, more at Oxford than Aristotle. The new experimental philosophy had arrived. John Wilkins, Cromwell’s brother in law, had become Warden of Wadham College. The group around Wilkins was the nucleus of what was to become the English Royal Society. The Society grew out of informal meetings and discussion groups and moved to London after the Restoration and became a formal institution in the 1660s with charters from Charles II. The Society saw its aims in contrast with the Scholastic/Aristotelian traditions that dominated the universities. The program was to study nature rather than books. [ 1 ] Many of Wilkins associates were people interested in pursuing medicine by observation rather than the reading of classic texts. Bacon’s interest in careful experimentation and the systematic collection of facts from which generalizations could be made was characteristic of this group. One of Locke’s friends from Westminster school, Richard Lower, introduced Locke to medicine and the experimental philosophy being pursued by the virtuosi at Wadham.

Locke received his B.A. in February 1656. His career at Oxford, however, continued beyond his undergraduate days. In June of 1658, Locke qualified as a Master of Arts and was elected a Senior Student of Christ Church College. The rank was equivalent to a Fellow at any of the other colleges, but was not permanent. Locke had yet to determine what his career was to be. Locke was elected Lecturer in Greek at Christ Church in December of 1660 and he was elected Lecturer in Rhetoric in 1663. At this point, Locke needed to make a decision. The statutes of Christ Church laid it down that fifty five of the senior studentships should be reserved for men in orders or reading for orders. Only five could be held by others, two in medicine, two in law and one in moral philosophy. Thus, there was good reason for Locke to become a clergyman. Since his graduation Locke had been studying medicine. Locke decided to become a doctor.

John Wilkins had left Oxford with the Restoration of Charles II. The new leader of the Oxford scientific group was Robert Boyle. He was also Locke’s scientific mentor. Boyle (with the help of his astonishing assistant Robert Hooke) built an air pump which led to the formulation of Boyle’s law and devised a barometer as a weather indicator. The work on the air pump led to a controversy with Thomas Hobbes because Boyle’s explanations of the working of the air pump were incompatible with Hobbes’ micro-corpuscular theory. This controversy continued for ten years. Boyle was, however, most influential as a theorist. He was a mechanical philosopher who treated the world as reducible to matter in motion. But he had no micro-corpuscular account of the air.

Locke read Boyle before he read Descartes. When he did read Descartes, he saw the great French philosopher as providing a viable alternative to the sterile Aristotelianism he had been taught at Oxford. In writing An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke adopted Descartes’ ‘way of ideas’; though it is transformed so as to become an organic part of Locke’s philosophy. Still, while admiring Descartes, Locke’s involvement with the Oxford scientists gave him a perspective that made him critical of the rationalist elements in Descartes’ philosophy.

In the Epistle to the Reader at the beginning of the Essay Locke remarks:

The commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master-builders, whose mighty designs, in advancing the sciences, will leave lasting monuments to the admiration of posterity: but everyone must not hope to be a Boyle or a Sydenham; and in an age that produces such masters as the great Huygenius and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with some others of that strain, it is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge …. (N: 9–10; all quotations are from the Nidditch edition of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [N])

Locke knew all of these men and their work. Locke, Boyle and Newton were all founding or early members of the English Royal Society. It is from Boyle that Locke learned about atomism (or the corpuscular hypothesis) and it is from Boyle’s book The Origin of Forms and Qualities that Locke took the language of primary and secondary qualities. Sydenham was an English physician and Locke did medical research with him. Sydenham championed careful observation of disease and rejected appeal to underlying causes. Both Boyle and Newton did work on colors that did not involve micro-corpuscular explanations. Locke read Newton’s Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis while in exile in Holland, and consulted Huygens as to the soundness of its mathematics. Locke and Newton became friends after Locke’s return from Holland in 1688. It may be that in referring to himself as an ‘under-labourer’, Locke is not only displaying a certain literary modesty, he is contrasting the positive discoveries of these men, with his own attempt to show the inadequacies of the Aristotelian and Scholastic and to some degree the Cartesian philosophies. There are, however, many aspects of Locke’s project to which this image of an under-labourer does not do justice (see Jolley 1999: 15–17). While the corpuscular philosophy and Newton’s discoveries clearly influenced Locke, it is the Baconian program of producing natural histories that Locke makes reference to when he talks about the Essay in the Introduction. He writes:

It shall suffice to my present Purpose, to consider the discerning Faculties of a Man, as they are employ’d about the Objects, which they have to do with: and I shall imagine that I have not wholly misimploy’d my self in the Thoughts I shall have on this Occasion, if in this Historical, Plain Method, I can give any Account of the Ways, whereby our Understanding comes to attain those Notions of Things, and can set down any Measure of the Certainty of our Knowledge…. (I.1.2, N: 43–4—the three numbers, are book, chapter and section numbers respectively, followed by the page number in the Nidditch edition)

The ‘Historical, Plain Method’ is apparently to give a genetic account of how we come by our ideas. Presumably this will reveal the degree of certainty of the knowledge based on such ideas. Locke’s own active involvement with the scientific movement was largely through his informal studies of medicine. Dr. David Thomas was his friend and collaborator. Locke and Thomas had a laboratory in Oxford which was very likely, in effect, a pharmacy. In 1666 Lord Ashley, one of the richest men in England, came to Oxford in order to drink some medicinal waters there. He had asked Dr. Thomas to provide them. Thomas had to be out of town and asked Locke to see that the water was delivered. As a result of this encounter, Ashley invited Locke to come to London as his personal physician. In 1667 Locke did move to London becoming not only Lord Ashley’s personal physician, but secretary, researcher, political operative and friend. Living with him Locke found himself at the very heart of English politics in the 1670s and 1680s.

Locke’s chief work while living at Lord Ashley’s residence, Exeter House, in 1668 was as Ashley’s physician. Locke used his medical training to organize a successful operation on Ashley. This was perhaps the most carefully documented operation in the 17th century. Locke consulted doctors across the country to determine what the best practices were for this operation and made cleanliness a priority. In doing so he saved his patron’s life and thus changed English history.

Locke had a number of other jobs. He worked as secretary of the Board of Trade and Plantations and Secretary to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas. Lord Ashley was one of the advocates of the view that England would prosper through trade and that colonies could play an important role in promoting trade. Ashley persuaded Charles II to create a Board of Trade and Plantations to collect information about trade and colonies, and Locke became its secretary. In his capacity as the secretary of the Board of Trade Locke was the collection point for information from around the globe about trade and colonies for the English government. Among Ashley’s commercial projects was an effort to found colonies in the Carolinas. In his capacity as the secretary to the Lords Proprietors, Locke was involved in the writing of the fundamental constitution of the Carolinas. There is some controversy about the extent of Locke’s role in writing the constitution. [ 2 ] In addition to issues about trade and colonies, Locke was involved through Shaftesbury in other controversies about public policy. There was a monetary crisis in England involving the value of money, and the clipping of coins. Locke wrote papers for Lord Ashley on economic matters, including the coinage crisis.

While living in London at Exeter House, Locke continued to be involved in philosophical discussions. He tells us that:

Were it fit to trouble thee with the history of this Essay, I should tell thee, that five or six friends meeting at my chamber, and discoursing on a subject very remote from this, found themselves quickly at a stand, by the difficulties that rose on every side. After we had awhile puzzled ourselves, without coming any nearer a resolution of those doubts which perplexed us, it came into my thoughts that we took a wrong course; and that before we set ourselves upon inquiries of that nature, it was necessary to examine our own abilities, and see what objects our understandings were, or were not, fitted to deal with. This I proposed to the company, who all readily assented; and thereupon it was agreed that this should be our first inquiry. Some hasty and undigested thoughts, on a subject I had never before considered, which I set down against our next meeting, gave the first entrance into this Discourse; which having been thus begun by chance, was continued by intreaty; written by incoherent parcels; and after long intervals of neglect, resumed again, as my humour or occasions permitted; and at last, in a retirement where an attendance on my health gave me leisure, it was brought into that order thou now seest it. (Epistle to the Reader, N: 7)

James Tyrrell, one of Locke’s friends was at that meeting. He recalls the discussion being about the principles of morality and revealed religion (Cranston 1957: 140–1). Thus the Oxford scholar and medical researcher came to begin the work which was to occupy him off and on over the next twenty years.

In 1674 after Shaftesbury had left the government, Locke went back to Oxford, where he acquired the degree Bachelor of medicine, and a license to practice medicine, and then went to France (Cranston 1957: 160). In France Locke went from Calais to Paris, Lyons and on to Montpellier, where he spent the next fifteen months. Much of Locke’s time was spent learning about Protestantism in France. The Edict of Nantes (promulgated by Henry IV in 1598) was in force, and so there was a degree of religious toleration in France. Louis XIV was to revoke the edict in 1685 and French Protestants were then killed while some 400,000 went into exile.

While Locke was in France, Shaftesbury’s fortunes fluctuated. In 1676 Shaftesbury was imprisoned in the tower. His imprisonment lasted for a year. In 1678, after the mysterious murder of a London judge, informers (most notably Titus Oates) started coming forward to reveal a supposed Catholic conspiracy to assassinate the King and put his brother on the throne. This whipped up public anti-Catholic frenzy. Though Shaftesbury had not fabricated the conspiracy story, nor did he prompt Oates to come forward, he did exploit the situation to the advantage of his party. In the public chaos surrounding the sensational revelations, Shaftesbury organized an extensive party network, exercised great control over elections, and built up a large parliamentary majority. His strategy was to secure the passage of an Exclusion bill that would prevent Charles II’s openly Catholic brother from becoming King. Although the Exclusion bill passed in the Commons it was rejected in the House of Lords because of the King’s strong opposition to it. As the panic over the Popish plot receded, Shaftesbury was left without a following or a cause. Shaftesbury was seized on July 21, 1681 and again put in the tower. He was tried on trumped-up charges of treason but acquitted by a London grand jury (filled with his supporters) in November.

At this point some of the Country Party leaders began plotting an armed insurrection which, had it come off, would have begun with the assassination of Charles and his brother on their way back to London from the races at Newmarket. The chances of such a rising occurring were not as good as the plotters supposed. Memories of the turmoil of the civil war were still relatively fresh. Eventually Shaftesbury, who was moving from safe house to safe house, gave up and fled to Holland in November 1682. He died there in January 1683. Locke stayed in England until the Rye House Plot (named after the house from which the plotters were to fire upon the King and his brother) was discovered in June of 1683. Locke left for the West country to put his affairs in order the very week the plot was revealed to the government and by September he was in exile in Holland. [ 3 ]

While in exile, Locke finished An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and published a fifty-page advanced notice of it in French. (This was to provide the intellectual world on the continent with most of their information about the Essay until Pierre Coste’s French translation appeared in 1704.) He also wrote and published his Epistola de Tolerentia in Latin. Richard Ashcraft, in his Revolutionary Politics and Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1986) suggests that while in Holland, Locke was not only finishing An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and nursing his health, he was closely associated with the English revolutionaries in exile. The English government was much concerned with this group. They tried to get a number of them, including Locke, extradited to England. Locke’s studentship at Oxford was taken away from him. In the meanwhile, the English intelligence service infiltrated the rebel group in Holland and effectively thwarted their efforts—at least for a while. While Locke was living in exile in Holland, Charles II died on Feb. 6, 1685, and was succeeded by his brother, who became James II of England. Soon after this, the rebels in Holland sent a force of soldiers under the Duke of Monmouth to England to try to overthrow James II. The revolt was crushed, and Monmouth was captured and executed (Ashcraft 1986). For a meticulous, if cautious review, of the evidence concerning Locke’s involvement with the English rebels in exile see Roger Woolhouse’s Locke: A Biography (2007).

Ultimately, however, the rebels were successful. James II alienated most of his supporters, and William of Orange was invited to bring a Dutch force to England. After William’s army landed, James II, realizing that he could not mount an effective resistance, fled the country to exile in France. This became known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It is a watershed in English history. For it marks the point at which the balance of power in the English government passed from the King to the Parliament. Locke returned to England in February 1689.

After his return from exile, Locke published An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and The Two Treatises of Government . In addition, Popple’s translation of Locke’s A Letter Concerning Toleration was also published. It is worth noting that the Two Treatises and the Letter Concerning Toleration were published anonymously. Locke took up residence in the country at Oates in Essex, the home of Sir Francis and Lady Masham (Damaris Cudworth). Locke had met Damaris Cudworth in 1682 and became involved intellectually and romantically with her. She was the daughter of Ralph Cudworth, the Cambridge Platonist, and a philosopher in her own right. After Locke went into exile in Holland in 1683, she married Sir Francis Masham. Locke and Lady Masham remained good friends and intellectual companions to the end of Locke’s life. During the remaining years of his life, Locke oversaw four more editions of the Essay and engaged in controversies over the Essay most notably in a series of published letters with Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester. In a similar way, Locke defended the Letter Concerning Toleration against a series of attacks. He wrote The Reasonableness of Christianity and Some Thoughts on Education during this period as well.

Nor was Locke finished with public affairs. In 1696 the Board of Trade was revived. Locke played an important part in its revival and served as the most influential member on it until 1700. The new Board of Trade had administrative powers and was, in fact, concerned with a wide range of issues, from the Irish wool trade and the suppression of piracy, to the treatment of the poor in England and the governance of the colonies. It was, in Peter Laslett’s phrase “the body which administered the United States before the American Revolution” (Laslett 1954 [1990: 127]). During these last eight years of his life, Locke was asthmatic, and he suffered so much from it that he could only bear the smoke of London during the four warmer months of the year. Locke plainly engaged in the activities of the Board out of a strong sense of patriotic duty. After his retirement from the Board of Trade in 1700, Locke remained in retirement at Oates until his death on Sunday 28 October 1704.

2. The Limits of Human Understanding

Locke is often classified as the first of the great English empiricists (ignoring the claims of Bacon and Hobbes). This reputation rests on Locke’s greatest work, the monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding . Locke explains his project in several places. Perhaps the most important of his goals is to determine the limits of human understanding. Locke writes:

For I thought that the first Step towards satisfying the several Enquiries, the Mind of Man was apt to run into, was, to take a Survey of our own Understandings, examine our own Powers, and see to what Things they were adapted. Till that was done, I suspected that we began at the wrong end, and in vain sought for Satisfaction in a quiet and secure Possession of Truths, that most concern’d us whilst we let loose our Thoughts into the vast Ocean of Being , as if all the boundless Extent, were the natural and undoubted Possessions of our Understandings, wherein there was nothing that escaped its Decisions, or that escaped its Comprehension. Thus Men, extending their Enquiries beyond their Capacities, and letting their Thoughts wander into those depths where they can find no sure Footing; ’tis no Wonder, that they raise Questions and multiply Disputes, which never coming to any clear Resolution, are proper to only continue and increase their Doubts, and to confirm them at last in a perfect Skepticism. Wheras were the Capacities of our Understanding well considered, the Extent of our Knowledge once discovered, and the Horizon found, which sets the boundary between the enlightened and the dark Parts of Things; between what is and what is not comprehensible by us, Men would perhaps with less scruple acquiesce in the avow’d Ignorance of the one; and employ their Thoughts and Discourse, with more Advantage and Satisfaction in the other. (I.1.7, N: 47)

Some philosophers before Locke had suggested that it would be good to find the limits of the Understanding, but what Locke does is to carry out this project in detail. In the four books of the Essay Locke considers the sources and nature of human knowledge. Book I argues that we have no innate knowledge. (In this he resembles Berkeley and Hume, and differs from Descartes and Leibniz.) So, at birth, the human mind is a sort of blank slate on which experience writes. In Book II Locke claims that ideas are the materials of knowledge and all ideas come from experience. The term ‘idea’, Locke tells us “…stands for whatsoever is the Object of the Understanding, when a man thinks” (I.1.8, N: 47). Experience is of two kinds, sensation and reflection. One of these—sensation—tells us about things and processes in the external world. The other—reflection—tells us about the operations of our own minds. Reflection is a sort of internal sense that makes us conscious of the mental processes we are engaged in. Some ideas we get only from sensation, some only from reflection and some from both.

Locke has an atomic or perhaps more accurately a corpuscular theory of ideas. [ 4 ] There is, that is to say, an analogy between the way atoms or corpuscles combine into complexes to form physical objects and the way ideas combine. Ideas are either simple or complex. We cannot create simple ideas, we can only get them from experience. In this respect the mind is passive. Once the mind has a store of simple ideas, it can combine them into complex ideas of a variety of kinds. In this respect the mind is active. Thus, Locke subscribes to a version of the empiricist axiom that there is nothing in the intellect that was not previously in the senses—where the senses are broadened to include reflection. Book III deals with the nature of language, its connections with ideas and its role in knowledge. Book IV, the culmination of the previous reflections, explains the nature and limits of knowledge, probability, and the relation of reason and faith. Let us now consider the Essay in some detail.

At the beginning of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke says that since his purpose is “to enquire into the Original, Certainty and Extent of human knowledge, together with the grounds and degrees of Belief, Opinion and Assent” he is going to begin with ideas—the materials out of which knowledge is constructed. His first task is to “enquire into the Original of these Ideas…and the ways whereby the Understanding comes to be furnished with them” (I.1.3, N: 44). The role of Book I of the Essay is to make the case that being innate is not a way in which the understanding is furnished with principles and ideas. Locke treats innateness as an empirical hypothesis and argues that there is no good evidence to support it.

Locke describes innate ideas as “some primary notions…Characters as it were stamped upon the Mind of Man, which the Soul receives in its very first Being; and brings into the world with it” (I.2.1, N: 48). In pursuing this enquiry, Locke rejects the claim that there are speculative innate principles (I.2), practical innate moral principles (I.3) or that we have innate ideas of God, identity or impossibility (I.4). Locke rejects arguments from universal assent and attacks dispositional accounts of innate principles. Thus, in considering what would count as evidence from universal assent to such propositions as “What is, is” or “It is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be” he holds that children and idiots should be aware of such truths if they were innate but that they “have not the least apprehension or thought of them”. Why should children and idiots be aware of and able to articulate such propositions? Locke says:

It seems to me a near Contradiction to say that there are truths imprinted on the Soul, which it perceives or understands not; imprinting if it signify anything, being nothing else but the making certain Truths to be perceived. (I.2.5, N: 49)

So, Locke’s first point is that if propositions were innate they should be immediately perceived—by infants and idiots (and indeed everyone else)—but there is no evidence that they are. Locke then proceeds to attack dispositional accounts that say, roughly, that innate propositions are capable of being perceived under certain circumstances. Until these circumstances come about the propositions remain unperceived in the mind. With the advent of these conditions, the propositions are then perceived. Locke gives the following argument against innate propositions being dispositional:

For if any one [proposition] may [be in the mind but not be known]; then, by the same Reason, all Propositions that are true, and the Mind is ever capable of assenting to, may be said to be in the Mind, and to be imprinted: since if any one can be said to be in the Mind, which it never yet knew, it must be only because it is capable of knowing it; and so the Mind is of all Truths it ever shall know. (I.2.5, N: 50)

The essence of this argument and many of Locke’s other arguments against dispositional accounts of innate propositions is that such dispositional accounts do not provide an adequate criterion for distinguishing innate propositions from other propositions that the mind may come to discover. Thus, even if some criterion is proposed, it will turn out not to do the work it is supposed to do.

When Locke turns from speculative principles to the question of whether there are innate practical moral principles, many of the arguments against innate speculative principles continue to apply, but there are some additional considerations. Practical principles, such as the Golden Rule, are not self-evident in the way such speculative principles as “What is, is” are. Thus, one can clearly and sensibly ask reasons for why one should hold the Golden Rule true or obey it (I.3.4, N: 68). There are substantial differences between people over the content of practical principles. Thus, they are even less likely candidates to be innate propositions or to meet the criterion of universal assent. In the fourth chapter of Book I, Locke raises similar points about the ideas which compose both speculative and practical principles. The point is that if the ideas that are constitutive of the principles are not innate, this gives us even more reason to hold that the principles are not innate. He examines the ideas of identity, impossibility and God to make these points.

In Book I Locke says little about who holds the doctrine of innate principles that he is attacking. For this reason he has sometimes been accused of attacking straw men. John Yolton has persuasively argued (Yolton 1956) that the view that innate ideas and principles were necessary for the stability of religion, morality and natural law was widespread in England in the seventeenth century, and that in attacking both the naive and the dispositional account of innate ideas and innate principles, Locke is attacking positions which were widely held and continued to be held after the publication of the Essay . Thus, the charge that Locke’s account of innate principles is made of straw, is not a just criticism. But there are also some important connections with particular philosophers and schools that are worth noting and some points about innate ideas and inquiry.

At I. 4. 24. Locke tells us that the doctrine of innate principles once accepted “eased the lazy from the pains of search” and that the doctrine is an inquiry stopper that is used by those who “affected to be Masters and Teachers” to illegitimately gain control of the minds of their students. Locke rather clearly has in mind the Aristotelians and scholastics at the universities. Thus Locke’s attack on innate principles is connected with his anti-authoritarianism. It is an expression of his view of the importance of free and autonomous inquiry in the search for truth. Ultimately, Locke holds, this is the best road to knowledge and happiness. Locke, like Descartes, is tearing down the foundations of the old Aristotelian scholastic house of knowledge. But while Descartes focused on the empiricism at the foundation of the structure, Locke is focusing on the claims that innate ideas provide its first principles. The attack on innate ideas is thus the first step in the demolition of the scholastic model of science and knowledge. Ironically, it is also clear from II.1.9. that Locke sees Descartes’ claim that his essence is to be a thinking thing as entailing a doctrine of innate ideas and principles.

In Book II of the Essay , Locke gives his positive account of how we acquire the materials of knowledge. Locke distinguishes a variety of different kinds of ideas in Book II. Locke holds that the mind is a tabula rasa or blank sheet until experience in the form of sensation and reflection provide the basic materials—simple ideas—out of which most of our more complex knowledge is constructed. While the mind may be a blank slate in regard to content, it is plain that Locke thinks we are born with a variety of faculties to receive and abilities to manipulate or process the content once we acquire it. Thus, for example, the mind can engage in three different types of action in putting simple ideas together. The first of these kinds of action is to combine them into complex ideas. Complex ideas are of two kinds, ideas of substances and ideas of modes. Substances are independent existences. Beings that count as substances include God, angels, humans, animals, plants and a variety of constructed things. Modes are dependent existences. These include mathematical and moral ideas, and all the conventional language of religion, politics and culture. The second action which the mind performs is the bringing of two ideas, whether simple or complex, by one another so as to take a view of them at once, without uniting them. This gives us our ideas of relations (II.12.1, N: 163). The third act of the mind is the production of our general ideas by abstraction from particulars, leaving out the particular circumstances of time and place, which would limit the application of an idea to a particular individual. In addition to these abilities, there are such faculties as memory which allow for the storing of ideas.

Having set forth the general machinery of how simple and complex ideas of substances, modes, relations, and so forth are derived from sensation and reflection, Locke also explains how a variety of particular kinds of ideas, such as the ideas of solidity, number, space, time, power, identity, and moral relations arise from sensation and reflection. Several of these are of particular interest. Locke’s chapter on power gives rise to a discussion of free will and voluntary action (see the entry on Locke on freedom ). Locke also made a number of interesting claims in the philosophy of mind. He suggested, for example, that for all we know, God could as easily add the powers of perception and thought to matter organized in the right way as he could add those powers to an immaterial substance which would then be joined to matter organized in the right way. His account of personal identity in II. xxvii was revolutionary. (See the entry on Locke on personal identity) . Both of these topics and related ones are treated in the supplementary document: Some Interesting Issues in Locke’s Philosophy of Mind

In what follows, we focus on some central issues in Locke’s account of physical objects. (See also the entry Locke’s philosophy of science , which pursues a number of topics related to Locke’s account of physical objects that are of considerable importance but largely beyond the scope of this general account of Locke’s philosophy.) These include Locke on knowledge in natural philosophy, the limitations of the corpuscular philosophy and Locke’s relation to Newton.

Locke offers an account of physical objects based on the mechanical philosophy and the corpuscular hypothesis. The adherents of the mechanical philosophy held that all material phenomena can be explained by matter in motion and the impact of one body on another. They viewed matter as passive. They rejected the “occult qualities” and “causation at a distance” of the Aristotelian and Scholastic philosophy. Robert Boyle’s corpuscularian hypothesis treated the material world as made up of particles. Some corpuscularians held that corpuscles could be further divided and that the universe was full of matter with no void space. Atomists, on the other hand, held that the particles were indivisible and that the material world is composed of atoms and the void or empty space in which the atoms move. Locke was an atomist.

Atoms have properties. They are extended, they are solid, they have a particular shape and they are in motion or rest. They combine together to produce the familiar stuff and physical objects, the gold and the wood, the horses and violets, the tables and chairs of our world. These familiar things also have properties. They are extended, solid, have a particular shape, and are in motion and at rest. In addition to these properties that they share with the atoms that compose them, they have other properties such as colors, smells, tastes that they get by standing in relation to perceivers. The distinction between these two kinds of properties goes back to the Greek atomists. It is articulated by Galileo and Descartes as well as Locke’s mentor Robert Boyle.

Locke makes this distinction in Book II Chapter 8 of the Essay and using Boyle’s terminology calls the two different classes of properties the primary and secondary qualities of an object. This distinction is made by both of the main branches of the mechanical philosophy of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Both the Cartesian plenum theorists, who held that the world was full of infinitely divisible matter and that there was no void space, and the atomists such as Gassendi, who held that there were indivisible atoms and void space in which the atoms move, made the distinction between these two classes of properties. Still, the differences between these two branches of the mechanical philosophy affect their account of primary qualities. In the chapter on Solidity (II.4) Locke rejects the Cartesian definition of body as simply extended and argues that bodies are both extended and impenetrable or solid. The inclusion of solidity in Locke’s account of bodies and of primary qualities distinguishes them from the void space in which they move.

The primary qualities of an object are properties which the object possesses independent of us—such as occupying space, being either in motion or at rest, having solidity and texture. The secondary qualities are powers in bodies to produce ideas in us like color, taste, smell and so on that are caused by the interaction of our particular perceptual apparatus with the primary qualities of the object. Our ideas of primary qualities resemble the qualities in the object, while our ideas of secondary qualities do not resemble the powers that cause them. Locke also distinguishes a second class of secondary properties that are the powers that one substance has to effect another, e.g. the power of a fire to melt a piece of wax.

There has been considerable scholarly debate concerning the details of Locke’s account of the distinction. Among the issues are which qualities Locke assigns to each of the two categories. Locke gives several lists. Another issue is what the criterion is for putting a quality in one list rather than another. Does Locke hold that all the ideas of secondary qualities come to us by one sense while the ideas of primary qualities come to us through two or is Locke not making the distinction in this way? Another issue is whether there are only primary qualities of atoms or whether compounds of atoms also have primary qualities. And while Locke claims our ideas of primary qualities resemble the primary qualities in objects, and the ideas of secondary qualities do not resemble their causes in the object, what does ‘resemble’ mean in this context? Related to this issue is how we are supposed to know about particles that we cannot sense. It seems clear that Locke holds that there are certain analogies between the middle sized macroscopic objects we encounter in the world, e.g. porphyry and manna for example, and the particles that compose these things. Maurice Mandelbaum called this process ‘transdiction’. These analogies allow us to say certain things about the nature of particles and primary and secondary qualities. For example we can infer that atoms are solid and that heat is a greater rate of motion of atoms while cold is a slower motion. But these analogies may not get us very far in grasping the necessary connections between qualities in nature. Yet another issue is whether Locke sees the distinction as reductionistic. If what we mean by reductionistic here is that only the primary qualities are real and these explain the secondary qualities then there does not seem to be a clear answer. Secondary qualities surely are nothing more than certain primary qualities that affect us in certain ways. This seems to be reductionistic. But on Locke’s account of “real ideas” in II.30 both the ideas of primary and secondary qualities count as real. And while Locke holds that our ideas of secondary qualities are caused by primary qualities, in certain important respects the primary qualities do not explain them. Locke holds that we cannot even conceive how the size, figure and motion of particles could cause any sensation in us. So, knowing the size, figure and motion of the particles would be of no use to us in this regard (see IV.3.11–40, N: 544–546).

Locke probably holds some version of the representational theory of perception, though some scholars dispute this. On such a theory what the mind immediately perceives are ideas, and the ideas are caused by and represent the objects which cause them. Thus perception is a triadic relation, rather than simply being a dyadic relation between an object and a perceiver. Such a dyadic relational theory is often called naive realism because it suggests that the perceiver is directly perceiving the object, and naive because this view is open to a variety of serious objections. Some versions of the representational theory are open to serious objections as well. If, for example, one treats ideas as things, then one can imagine that because one sees ideas, the ideas actually block one from seeing things in the external world. The idea would be like a picture or painting. The picture would copy the original object in the external world, but because our immediate object of perception is the picture we would be prevented from seeing the original just as standing in front of a painting on an easel might prevent us from seeing the person being painted. Thus, this is sometimes called the picture/original theory of perception. Alternatively, Jonathan Bennett called it “the veil of perception” to emphasize that ‘seeing’ the ideas prevents us from seeing the external world. One philosopher who arguably held such a view was Nicholas Malebranche, a follower of Descartes. Antoine Arnauld, by contrast, while believing in the representative character of ideas, is a direct realist about perception. Arnauld engaged in a lengthy controversy with Malebranche, and criticized Malebranche’s account of ideas. Locke follows Arnauld in his criticism of Malebranche on this point (Locke, 1823, Vol. IX: 250). Yet Berkeley attributed the veil of perception interpretation of the representational theory of perception to Locke as have many later commentators including Bennett. A.D. Woozley puts the difficulty of doing this succinctly:

…it is scarcely credible both that Locke should be able to see and state so clearly the fundamental objection to the picture-original theory of sense perception, and that he should have held the same theory himself. (Woozley 1964: 27)

Just what Locke’s account of perception involves, is still a matter of scholarly debate. A review of this issue at a symposium including John Rogers, Gideon Yaffe, Lex Newman, Tom Lennon, and Vere Chappell at a meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association in 2003 and later expanded and published in the Pacific Philosophical Quarterly (2004, volume 85, issue 3) found most of the symposiasts holding the view that Locke holds a representative theory of perception but that he is not a skeptic about the external world in the way that the veil of perception doctrine might suggest.

Another issue that has been a matter of controversy since the first publication of the Essay is what Locke means by the term ‘substance’. The primary/secondary quality distinction gets us a certain ways in understanding physical objects, but Locke is puzzled about what underlies or supports the primary qualities themselves. He is also puzzled about what material and immaterial substances might have in common that would lead us to apply the same word to both. These kinds of reflections led him to the relative and obscure idea of substance in general. This is an “I know not what” which is the support of qualities which cannot subsist by themselves. We experience properties appearing in regular clumps, but we must infer that there is something that supports or perhaps ‘holds together’ those qualities. For we have no experience of that supporting substance. It is clear that Locke sees no alternative to the claim that there are substances supporting qualities. He does not, for example, have a theory of tropes (tropes are properties that can exist independently of substances) which he might use to dispense with the notion of substance. (In fact, he may be rejecting something like a theory of tropes when he rejects the Aristotelian doctrine of real qualities and insists on the need for substances.) He is thus not at all a skeptic about ‘substance’ in the way that Hume is. But, it is also quite clear that he is regularly insistent about the limitations of our ideas of substances. Bishop Stillingfleet accused Locke of putting substance out of the reasonable part of the world. But Locke is not doing that.

Since Berkeley, Locke’s doctrine of the substratum or substance in general has been attacked as incoherent. It seems to imply that we have a particular without any properties, and this seems like a notion that is inconsistent with empiricism. We have no experience of such an entity and so no way to derive such an idea from experience. Locke himself acknowledges this point (I.4.18, N: 95). In order to avoid this problem, Michael Ayers has proposed that we must understand the notions of ‘substratum’ and ‘substance in general’ in terms of Locke’s distinction between real and nominal essences and particularly his doctrine of real essences developed in Book III of the Essay rather than as a separate problem from that of knowing real essences. The real essence of a material thing is its atomic constitution. This atomic constitution is the causal basis of all the observable properties of the thing, from which we create nominal essences. Were the real essence known, all the observable properties could be deduced from it. Locke claims that the real essences of material things are quite unknown to us. Locke’s concept of substance in general is also a ‘something I know not what’. Thus, on Ayers’ interpretation ‘substance in general’ means something like ‘whatever it is that supports qualities’ while the real essence means ‘this particular atomic constitution that explains this set of observable qualities’. Thus, Ayers wants to treat the unknown substratum as picking out the same thing as the real essence—thus eliminating the need for particulars without properties. This proposed way of interpreting Locke has been criticized by scholars both because of a lack of textural support, and on the stronger grounds that it conflicts with some things that Locke does say (see Jolley 1999: 71–3). As we have reached one of the important concepts in Book III, let us turn to that Book and Locke’s discussion of language.

Locke devotes Book III of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding to language. This is a strong indication that Locke thinks issues about language were of considerable importance in attaining knowledge. At the beginning of the Book he notes the importance of abstract general ideas to knowledge. These serve as sorts under which we rank all the vast multitude of particular existences. Thus, abstract ideas and classification are of central importance in Locke’s discussion of language and its importance for knowledge. Without general terms and classes we would be faced with the impossible task of trying to know a vast world of particulars.

There is a clear connection between Books II and III in that Locke claims that words stand for ideas. In his discussion of language Locke distinguishes words according to the categories of ideas established in Book II of the Essay . So there are ideas of substances, simple modes, mixed modes, relations and so on. It is in this context that Locke makes the distinction between real and nominal essences noted above. Perhaps because of his focus on the role that kind terms play in classification, Locke pays vastly more attention to nouns than to verbs. Locke recognizes that not all words relate to ideas. There are also the many particles, words that “…signify the connexion that the Mind gives to Ideas, or Propositions, one with another” (II.7.1, N: 471). Still, it is the relation of words and ideas that gets most of Locke’s attention in Book III.

Norman Kretzmann calls the claim that “words in their primary or immediate signification signify nothing but the ideas in the mind of him that uses them ” (III.2.2) “Locke’s main semantic thesis” (see Kretzmann 1968:179). This thesis has often been criticized as a classic blunder in semantic theory. Thus Mill, for example, wrote, “When I say, ‘the sun is the cause of the day’, I do not mean that my idea of the sun causes or excites in me the idea of day” (Mill 1843: bk 1, ch. 2, § 1). This criticism of Locke’s account of language parallels the “veil of perception” critique of his account of perception and suggests that Locke is not distinguishing the meaning of a word from its reference. Kretzmann, however, argues persuasively that Locke distinguishes between meaning and reference and that ideas provide the meaning but not the reference of words. Thus, the line of criticism represented by the quotation from Mill is ill founded.

In addition to the kinds of ideas noted above, there are also particular and abstract ideas. Particular ideas have in them the ideas of particular places and times which limit the application of the idea to a single individual, while abstract general ideas leave out the ideas of particular times and places in order to allow the idea to apply to other similar qualities or things. There has been considerable philosophical and scholarly debate about the nature of the process of abstraction and Locke’s account of it. Berkeley argued that the process as Locke conceives it is incoherent. In part this is because Berkeley is an imagist—that is he believes that all ideas are images. If one is an imagist it becomes impossible to imagine what idea could include both the ideas of a right and equilateral triangle. Michael Ayers has recently argued that Locke too was an imagist. This would make Berkeley’s criticism of Locke very much to the point. Ayers’ claim, however, has been disputed (see, for example, Soles 1999). The process of abstraction is of considerable importance to human knowledge. Locke thinks most words we use are general (III.1.1, N: 409). Clearly, it is only general or sortal ideas that can serve in a classificatory scheme.

In his discussion of names of substances and in the contrast between names of substances and names of modes, a number of interesting features of Locke’s views about language and knowledge emerge. Physical substances are atoms and things made up of atoms. But we have no experience of the atomic structure of horses and tables. We know horses and tables mainly by secondary qualities such as color, taste and smell and so on and primary qualities such as shape, motion and extension. So, since the real essence (the atomic constitution) of a horse is unknown to us, our word ‘horse’ cannot get its meaning from that real essence. What the general word signifies is the complex of ideas we have decided are parts of the idea of that sort of thing. These ideas we get from experience. Locke calls such a general idea that picks out a sort, the nominal essence of that sort.

One of the central issues in Book III has to do with classification. On what basis do we divide things into kinds and organize those kinds into a system of species and genera? In the Aristotelian and Scholastic tradition that Locke rejects, necessary properties are those that an individual must have in order to exist and continue to exist. These contrast with accidental properties. Accidental properties are those that an individual can gain and lose and yet continue in existence. If a set of necessary properties is shared by a number of individuals, that set of properties constitutes the essence of a natural kind. The borders between kinds are supposed to be sharp and determinate. The aim of Aristotelian science is to discover the essences of natural kinds. Kinds can then be organized hierarchically into a classificatory system of species and genera. This classification of the world by natural kinds will be unique and privileged because it alone corresponds to the structure of the world. This doctrine of essences and kinds is often called Aristotelian essentialism. Locke rejects a variety of aspects of this doctrine. He rejects the notion that an individual has an essence apart from being treated as belonging to a kind. He also rejects the claim that there is a single classification of things in nature that the natural philosopher should seek to discover. He holds that there are many possible ways to classify the world each of which might be particularly useful depending on one’s purposes.

Locke’s pragmatic account of language and the distinction between nominal and real essences constitute an anti-essentialist alternative to this Aristotelian essentialism and its correlative account of the classification of natural kinds. He claims that there are no fixed boundaries in nature to be discovered—that is there are no clear demarcation points between species. There are always borderline cases. There is debate over whether Locke’s view is that this lack of fixed boundaries is true on both the level of appearances and nominal essences, and atomic constitutions and real essences, or on the level of nominal essences alone. The first view is that Locke holds that there are no Aristotelian natural kinds on either the level of appearance or atomic reality. The second view holds that Locke thinks there are Aristotelian natural kinds on the atomic level, it is simply that we cannot get at them or know what they are. On either of these interpretations, the real essence cannot provide the meaning to names of substances. A.O. Lovejoy in the Great Chain of Being , and David Wiggins are proponents of the second interpretation while Michael Ayers and William Uzgalis argue for the first (Uzgalis 1988; Ayers 1991: II. 70).

By contrast, the ideas that we use to make up our nominal essences come to us from experience. Locke claims that the mind is active in making our ideas of sorts and that there are so many properties to choose among that it is possible for different people to make quite different ideas of the essence of a certain substance. This has given some commentators the impression that the making of sorts is utterly arbitrary and conventional for Locke and that there is no basis for criticizing a particular nominal essence. Sometimes Locke says things that might suggest this. But this impression should be resisted. Peter Anstey has characterized Locke’s conventionalism about classificatory terms as both constrained and convergent (Anstey 2011: 209, 212). Locke claims that while the making of nominal essences is the work of the understanding, that work is constrained both by usage (where words stand for ideas that are already in use) and by the fact that substance words are supposed to copy the properties of the substances they refer to. Locke says that our ideas of kinds of substances have as their archetype the complex of properties that produce the appearances we use to make our nominal essences and which cause the unity of the complex of ideas that appear to us regularly conjoined. The very notion of an archetype implies constraints on what properties (and hence what ideas) can go together. If there were no such constraints there could be no archetype. (For further discussion of the nominal-real essence distinction see the entry Locke on Real Essences) .

Let us begin with the usage of words. It is important in a community of language users that words be used with the same meaning. If this condition is met it facilitates the chief end of language which is communication. If one fails to use words with the meaning that most people attach to them, one will fail to communicate effectively with others. Thus one would defeat the main purpose of language. It should also be noted that traditions of usage for Locke can be modified. Otherwise we would not be able to improve our knowledge and understanding by getting more clear and determinate ideas.

In the making of the names of substances, there is a period of discovery as the abstract general idea is put together (e.g. the discovery of violets or gold) and then the naming of that idea and then its introduction into language. Language itself is viewed as an instrument for carrying out the mainly prosaic purposes and practices of everyday life. Ordinary people are the chief makers of language.

Vulgar Notions suit vulgar Discourses; and both though confused enough, yet serve pretty well for the Market and the Wake. Merchants and Lovers, Cooks and Taylors, have Words wherewith to dispatch their ordinary affairs; and so, I think, might Philosophers and Disputants too, if they had a mind to understand and to be clearly understood. (III.11.10, N: 514)

These ordinary people use a few apparent qualities, mainly ideas of secondary qualities to make ideas and words that will serve their purposes.

Natural philosophers (i.e. scientists) come along later to try to determine if the connections between properties which the ordinary folk have put together in a particular idea in fact holds in nature. Scientists are seeking to find the necessary connections between properties. Still, even scientists, in Locke’s view, are restricted to using observable (and mainly secondary) qualities to categorize things in nature. Sometimes, the scientists may find that the ordinary folk had erred, as when they called whales ‘fish’. A whale is not a fish, as it turns out, but a mammal. There is a characteristic group of qualities that fish have that whales do not have. There is a characteristic group of qualities that mammals have that whales also have. To classify a whale as a fish, therefore, is a mistake. Similarly, we might make an idea of gold that only included being a soft metal and gold color. If so, we would be unable to distinguish between gold and fool’s gold. Thus, since it is the mind that makes complex ideas (they are ‘the workmanship of the understanding’), one is free to put together any combination of ideas one wishes and call it what one will. But the product of such work is open to criticism, either on the grounds that it does not conform to already current usage or that it inadequately represents the archetypes that it is supposed to copy in the world. We engage in such criticism in order to improve human understanding of the material world and thus the human condition. This is the convergent character of Locke’s conventionalism. In becoming more accurate, the nominal essence converges on the real essence.

However, we should not forget the master-builders that Locke mentions at the beginning of the Essay . Stephen Gaukroger (2010) claims that Locke’s great achievement was to provide a philosophical justification for the kind of experimental philosophy that Boyle’s work on the air pump, and his and Newton’s work on colors, as well as Sydenham’s observational medicine. All of these had been attacked for not providing explanations in terms of matter theory. Thus, Locke is justifying the autonomy of experimental philosophy. Such experimental explanations depend solely on the relation between phenomena, even when there is some micro-corpuscular basis for the phenomena being explained. According to Gaukroger, this is Locke’s contribution to the collapse of mechanism. For the details of the problem and its solution, see Chapters 4 and 5 of Gaukroger (2010).

The distinction between modes and substances is surely one of the most important in Locke’s philosophy. In contrast with substances, modes are dependent existences—they can be thought of as the ordering of substances. These are technical terms for Locke, so we should see how they are defined. Locke writes:

First, Modes I call such complex Ideas , which however compounded, contain not in themselves the supposition of subsisting by themselves; such are the ideas signified by the Words Triangle, Gratitude, Murther, etc . (II.12.4, N: 165)

Locke goes on to distinguish between simple and mixed modes. He writes:

Of these Modes , there are two sorts, which deserve distinct consideration. First, there are some that are only variations, or different combinations of the same simple Idea , without the mixture of any other, as a dozen or score; which are nothing but the ideas of so many distinct unities being added together, and these I call simple Modes , as being contained within the bounds of one simple Idea . Secondly, There are others, compounded of Ideas of several kinds, put together to make one complex one; v.g. Beauty , consisting of a certain combination of Colour and Figure, causing Delight to the Beholder; Theft , which being the concealed change of the Possession of any thing, without the consent of the Proprietor, contains, as is visible, a combination of several Ideas of several kinds; and these I call Mixed Modes . (II.12.5, N: 165)

When we make ideas of modes, the mind is again active, but the archetype is in our mind. The question becomes whether things in the world fit our ideas, and not whether our ideas correspond to the nature of things in the world. Our ideas are adequate. Thus we define ‘bachelor’ as an unmarried, adult, male human being. If we find that someone does not fit this definition, this does not reflect badly on our definition, it simply means that that individual does not belong to the class of bachelors. Modes give us the ideas of mathematics, of morality, of religion and politics and indeed of human conventions in general. Since these modal ideas are not only made by us but serve as standards that things in the world either fit or do not fit and thus belong or do not belong to that sort, ideas of modes are clear and distinct, adequate and complete. Thus in modes, we get the real and nominal essences combined. One can give precise definitions of mathematical terms (that is, give necessary and sufficient conditions), and one can give deductive demonstrations of mathematical truths. Locke sometimes says that morality too is capable of deductive demonstration. Though pressed by his friend William Molyneux to produce such a demonstrative morality, Locke never did so. The entry Locke’s moral philosophy provides an excellent discussion of Locke’s views on morality and issues related to them for which there is no room in this general account. The terms of political discourse also have some of the same modal features for Locke. When Locke defines the states of nature, slavery, and war in the Second Treatise of Government , for example, we are presumably getting precise modal definitions from which one can deduce consequences. It is possible, however, that with politics we are getting a study that requires both experience as well as the deductive modal aspect.

In the fourth book of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke tells us what knowledge is and what humans can know and what they cannot (not simply what they do and do not happen to know). Locke defines knowledge as “the perception of the connexion and agreement or disagreement and repugnancy of any of our Ideas” (IV.1.1, N: 525). This definition of knowledge contrasts with the Cartesian definition of knowledge as any ideas that are clear and distinct. Locke’s account of knowledge allows him to say that we can know substances in spite of the fact that our ideas of them always include the obscure and relative idea of substance in general. Still, Locke’s definition of knowledge raises in this domain a problem analogous to those we have seen with perception and language. If knowledge is the “perception of … the agreement or disagreement … of any of our Ideas”—are we not trapped in the circle of our own ideas? What about knowing the real existence of things? Locke is plainly aware of this problem, and very likely holds that the implausibility of skeptical hypotheses, such as Descartes’ Dream hypothesis (he doesn’t even bother to mention Descartes’ malin genie or Evil Demon hypothesis), along with the causal connections between qualities and ideas in his own system is enough to solve the problem. It is also worth noting that there are significant differences between Locke’s brand of empiricism and that of Berkeley that would make it easier for Locke to solve the veil of perception problem than Berkeley. Locke, for example, makes transdictive inferences about atoms where Berkeley is unwilling to allow that such inferences are legitimate. This implies that Locke has a semantics that allows him to talk about the unexperienced causes of experience (such as atoms) where Berkeley cannot. (See Mackie’s perceptive discussion of the veil of perception problem, in Problems from Locke , 1976: 51 through 67.)

What then can we know and with what degree of certainty? We can know that God exists with the second highest degree of assurance, that of demonstration. We also know that we exist with the highest degree of certainty. The truths of morality and mathematics we can know with certainty as well, because these are modal ideas whose adequacy is guaranteed by the fact that we make such ideas as ideal models which other things must fit, rather than trying to copy some external archetype which we can only grasp inadequately. On the other hand, our efforts to grasp the nature of external objects are limited largely to the connection between their apparent qualities. The real essence of elephants and gold is hidden from us: though in general we suppose them to be some distinct combination of atoms which cause the grouping of apparent qualities which leads us to see elephants and violets, gold and lead as distinct kinds. Our knowledge of material things is probabilistic and thus opinion rather than knowledge. Thus our “knowledge” of external objects is inferior to our knowledge of mathematics and morality, of ourselves, and of God. We do have sensitive knowledge of external objects, which is limited to things we are presently experiencing. While Locke holds that we only have knowledge of a limited number of things, he thinks we can judge the truth or falsity of many propositions in addition to those we can legitimately claim to know. This brings us to a discussion of probability.

Knowledge involves the seeing of the agreement or disagreement of our ideas. What then is probability and how does it relate to knowledge? Locke writes:

The Understanding Faculties being given to Man, not barely for Speculation, but also for the Conduct of his Life, Man would be at a great loss, if he had nothing to direct him, but what has the Certainty of true Knowledge … Therefore, as God has set some Things in broad day-light; as he has given us some certain Knowledge…So in the greater part of our Concernment, he has afforded us only the twilight, as I may say so, of Probability, suitable, I presume, to that State of Mediocrity and Probationership, he has been pleased to place us in here, wherein to check our over-confidence and presumption, we might by every day’s Experience be made sensible of our short sightedness and liableness to Error… (IV.14.1–2, N: 652)

So, apart from the few important things that we can know for certain, e.g. the existence of ourselves and God, the nature of mathematics and morality broadly construed, for the most part we must lead our lives without knowledge. What then is probability? Locke writes:

As Demonstration is the shewing of the agreement or disagreement of two Ideas, by the intervention of one or more Proofs, which have a constant, immutable, and visible connexion one with another: so Probability is nothing but the appearance of such an Agreement or Disagreement, by the intervention of Proofs, whose connection is not constant and immutable, or at least is not perceived to be so, but is or appears, for the most part to be so, and is enough to induce the Mind to judge the Proposition to be true, or false, rather than the contrary. (IV.15.1, N: 654)

Probable reasoning, on this account, is an argument, similar in certain ways to the demonstrative reasoning that produces knowledge but different also in certain crucial respects. It is an argument that provides evidence that leads the mind to judge a proposition true or false but without a guarantee that the judgment is correct. This kind of probable judgment comes in degrees, ranging from near demonstrations and certainty to unlikeliness and improbability in the vicinity of impossibility. It is correlated with degrees of assent ranging from full assurance down to conjecture, doubt and distrust.

The new science of mathematical probability had come into being on the continent just around the time that Locke was writing the Essay . His account of probability, however, shows little or no awareness of mathematical probability. Rather it reflects an older tradition that treated testimony as probable reasoning. Given that Locke’s aim, above all, is to discuss what degree of assent we should give to various religious propositions, the older conception of probability very likely serves his purposes best. Thus, when Locke comes to describe the grounds for probability he cites the conformity of the proposition to our knowledge, observation and experience, and the testimony of others who are reporting their observation and experience. Concerning the latter we must consider the number of witnesses, their integrity, their skill in observation, counter testimony and so on. In judging rationally how much to assent to a probable proposition, these are the relevant considerations that the mind should review. We should, Locke also suggests, be tolerant of differing opinions as we have more reason to retain the opinions we have than to give them up to strangers or adversaries who may well have some interest in our doing so.

Locke distinguishes two sorts of probable propositions. The first of these have to do with particular existences or matters of fact, and the second that are beyond the testimony of the senses. Matters of fact are open to observation and experience, and so all of the tests noted above for determining rational assent to propositions about them are available to us. Things are quite otherwise with matters that are beyond the testimony of the senses. These include the knowledge of finite immaterial spirits such as angels or things such as atoms that are too small to be sensed, or the plants, animals or inhabitants of other planets that are beyond our range of sensation because of their distance from us. Concerning this latter category, Locke says we must depend on analogy as the only help for our reasoning. He writes:

Thus the observing that the bare rubbing of two bodies violently one upon the other, produce heat, and very often fire it self, we have reason to think, that what we call Heat and Fire consist of the violent agitation of the imperceptible minute parts of the burning matter…. (IV.16.12, N: 665–6)

We reason about angels by considering the Great Chain of Being; figuring that while we have no experience of angels, the ranks of species above us is likely as numerous as that below of which we do have experience. This reasoning is, however, only probable.

The relative merits of the senses, reason and faith for attaining truth and the guidance of life were a significant issue during this period. As noted above James Tyrrell recalled that the original impetus for the writing of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding was a discussion about the principles of morality and revealed religion. In Book IV Chapters 17, 18, and 19 Locke deals with the nature of reason, the relation of reason to faith and the nature of enthusiasm. Locke remarks that all sects make use of reason as far as they can. It is only when this fails them that they have recourse to faith and claim that what is revealed is above reason. But he adds:

And I do not see how they can argue with anyone or even convince a gainsayer who uses the same plea, without setting down strict boundaries between faith and reason. (IV.18.2, N: 689)

Locke then defines reason as

the discovery of the certainty or probability of such propositions or truths, which the mind arrives at by deduction made from such ideas, as it has got by the use of its natural faculties; viz, by the use of sensation or reflection. (IV.18.2, N: 689)

Faith, on the other hand, is assent to any proposition “…upon the credit of the proposer, as coming from God, in some extraordinary way of communication”. That is we have faith in what is disclosed by revelation and which cannot be discovered by reason. Locke also distinguishes between the original revelation by God to some person, and traditional revelation which is the original revelation “…delivered over to others in Words, and the ordinary ways of our conveying our Conceptions one to another” (IV.18.3, N: 690).

Locke makes the point that some things could be discovered both by reason and by revelation—God could reveal the propositions of Euclid’s geometry, or they could be discovered by reason. In such cases there would be little use for faith. Traditional revelation can never produce as much certainty as the contemplation of the agreement or disagreement of our own ideas. Similarly revelations about matters of fact do not produce as much certainty as having the experience oneself. Revelation, then, cannot contradict what we know to be true. If it could, it would undermine the trustworthiness of all of our faculties. This would be a disastrous result. Where revelation comes into its own is where reason cannot reach. Where we have few or no ideas for reason to contradict or confirm, these are the proper matters for faith.

…that Part of the Angels rebelled against GOD, and thereby lost their first happy state: and that the dead shall rise, and live again: These and the like, being Beyond the Discovery of Reason, are purely matters of Faith; with which Reason has nothing to do. (IV.18.8, N: 694)

Still, reason does have a crucial role to play in respect to revelation. Locke writes:

Because the Mind, not being certain of the Truth of that it evidently does not know, but only yielding to the Probability that appears to it, is bound to give up its assent to such Testimony, which, it is satisfied, comes from one who cannot err, and will not deceive. But yet, it still belongs to Reason, to judge of the truth of its being a Revelation, and of the significance of the Words, wherein it is delivered. (IV.18.8, N: 694)

So, in respect to the crucial question of how we are to know whether a revelation is genuine, we are supposed to use reason and the canons of probability to judge. Locke claims that if the boundaries between faith and reason are not clearly marked, then there will be no place for reason in religion and one then gets all the “extravagant Opinions and Ceremonies, that are to be found in the religions of the world…” (IV.18.11, N: 696).

Should one accept revelation without using reason to judge whether it is genuine revelation or not, one gets what Locke calls a third principle of assent besides reason and revelation, namely enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a vain or unfounded confidence in divine favor or communication. It implies that there is no need to use reason to judge whether such favor or communication is genuine or not. Clearly when such communications are not genuine they are “the ungrounded Fancies of a Man’s own Brain” (IV.19.2, N: 698). This kind of enthusiasm was characteristic of Protestant extremists going back to the era of the civil war. Locke was not alone in rejecting enthusiasm, but he rejects it in the strongest terms. Enthusiasm violates the fundamental principle by which the understanding operates—that assent be proportioned to the evidence. To abandon that fundamental principle would be catastrophic. This is a point that Locke also makes in The Conduct of the Understanding and The Reasonableness of Christianity . Locke wants each of us to use our understanding to search after truth. Of enthusiasts, those who would abandon reason and claim to know on the basis of faith alone, Locke writes:

…he that takes away Reason to make way for Revelation, puts out the Light of both, and does much what the same, as if he would perswade a Man to put out his eyes, the better to receive the remote Light of an invisible Star by a Telescope. (IV.19.4, N: 698)

Rather than engage in the tedious labor required to reason correctly to judge of the genuineness of their revelation, enthusiasts persuade themselves that they are possessed of immediate revelation. This leads to “odd Opinions and extravagant actions” that are characteristic of enthusiasm and which should warn that this is a wrong principle. Thus, Locke strongly rejects any attempt to make inward persuasion not judged by reason a legitimate principle.

We turn now to a consideration of Locke’s educational works.

Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education and his Conduct of the Understanding form a nice bridge between An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his political works. Ruth Grant and Nathan Tarcov write in the introduction to their edition of these works:

The idea of liberty, so crucial to all of Locke’s writings on politics and education, is traced in the Essay to reflection on the power of the mind over one’s own actions, especially the power to suspend actions in the pursuit of the satisfaction of one’s own desires until after a full consideration of their objects (II.21.47, N: 51–52). The Essay thus shows how the independence of mind pursued in the Conduct is possible. (G&T 1996: xvi)

Some Thoughts Concerning Education was first published in 1693. This book collected together advice that Locke had been giving his friend Edward Clarke about the education of Clarke’s son (and also his daughters) since 1684. In preparing the revision for the fourth edition of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke began writing a chapter called “The Conduct of the Understanding”. This became quite long and was never added to the Essay or even finished. It was left to Locke’s literary executors to decide what to do with it. The Conduct was published by Peter King in his posthumous edition of some of Locke’s works in 1706. As Locke was composing these works, some of the material from the Conduct eventually made its way into the Thoughts . Grant and Tarcov write that the Thoughts and the Conduct “complement each other well: the Thoughts focuses on the education of children by their parents, whereas the Conduct addresses the self-education of adults” (G&T 1996: vii). Though they also note tensions between the two that illustrate paradoxes in liberal society. The Thoughts is addressed to the education of the sons and daughters of the English gentry in the late seventeenth century. It is in some ways thus significantly more limited to its time and place than the Conduct . Yet, its insistence on the inculcating such virtues as

justice as respect for the rights of others, civility, liberality, humanity, self-denial, industry, thrift, courage, truthfulness, and a willingness to question prejudice, authority and the biases of one’s own self-interest

very likely represents the qualities needed for citizens in a liberal society (G&T 1996: xiii).

Locke’s Thoughts represents the culmination of a century of what has been called “the discovery of the child”. In the Middle Ages the child was regarded as

only a simple plaything, as a simple animal, or a miniature adult who dressed, played and was supposed to act like his elders…Their ages were unimportant and therefore seldom known. Their education was undifferentiated, either by age, ability or intended occupation. (Axtell 1968: 63–4)

Locke treated children as human beings in whom the gradual development of rationality needed to be fostered by parents. Locke urged parents to spend time with their children and tailor their education to their character and idiosyncrasies, to develop both a sound body and character, and to make play the chief strategy for learning rather than rote learning or punishment. Thus, he urged learning languages by learning to converse in them before learning rules of grammar. Locke also suggests that the child learn at least one manual trade.

In advocating a kind of education that made people who think for themselves, Locke was preparing people to effectively make decisions in their own lives—to engage in individual self-government—and to participate in the government of their country. The Conduct reveals the connections Locke sees between reason, freedom and morality. Reason is required for good self-government because reason insofar as it is free from partiality, intolerance and passion and able to question authority leads to fair judgment and action. We thus have a responsibility to cultivate reason in order to avoid the moral failings of passion, partiality and so forth (G&T 1996: xii). This is, in Tarcov’s phrase, Locke’s education for liberty.

We turn now to Locke’s political writings. (See the entry on Locke’s political philosophy , which focuses on five topics (the state of nature, natural law, property, consent and toleration) and goes into these topics in more depth than is possible in a general account and provides much useful information on the debates about them.)

4. The Two Treatises Of Government

Lord Shaftsbury had been dismissed from his post as Lord Chancellor in 1673 and had become one of the leaders of the opposition party, the Country Party. In 1679 the chief issue was the attempt by the Country Party leaders to exclude James, Duke of York from succeeding his brother Charles II to the throne. They wanted to do this because James was a Catholic, and England by this time was a firmly Protestant country. They had acquired a majority in the House of Commons through serious grass roots election campaigns, and passed an exclusion bill, but given the King’s unwillingness to see his brother excluded from the throne, the bill failed in the House of Lords. They tried a couple of more times without success. Having failed by parliamentary means, some of the Country Party leaders started plotting armed rebellion.

The Two Treatises of Government were published in 1689, long after the rebellion plotted by the Country party leaders had failed to materialize and after Shaftsbury had fled the country for Holland and died. The introduction of the Two Treatises was written after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and gave the impression that the book was written to justify the Glorious Revolution. We now know that the Two Treatises of Government were written during the Exclusion crisis in 1681 and may have been intended in part to justify the general armed rising which the Country Party leaders were planning.

There were serious obstacles to a rebellion to force James’ exclusion from the throne. The English Anglican gentry needed to support such an action. But the Anglican church from childhood on taught that: “…men’s political duties were exhaustively determined by their terrestrial superiors, that under grave conscientious scruples they might rightly decline to carry out those decrees of authority which were in direct breach of divine law, they could under no circumstances have a right to resist such authority”. (Dunn, 1968, 48) Since by 1679 it was abundantly clear that the King opposed excluding his brother from the throne, to favor exclusion implied “explicit and self-conscious resistance to the sovereign”. Passive resistance would simply not do. On the other hand, the royal policy “outraged their deepest religious prejudices and stimulated their most obscure emotional anxieties.” So, the gentry were deeply conflicted and neither of the choices available to them looked very palatable. John Dunn goes on to remark: “To exert influence upon their choice it was above all necessary to present a more coherent ordering of their values, to show that the political tradition within which the dissenters saw their conduct was not necessarily empirically absurd or socially subversive. The gentry had to be persuaded that there could be reason for rebellion which could make it neither blasphemous or suicidal.” (Dunn, 1968, 49) To achieve this goal Locke picked the most relevant and extreme of the supporters of the divine right of Kings to attack. Sir Robert Filmer (c 1588–1653), a man of the generation of Charles I and the English Civil War, who had defended the crown in various works. His most famous work, however, Patriarcha , was published posthumously in 1680 and represented the most complete and coherent exposition of the view Locke wished to deny. Filmer held that men were born into helpless servitude to an authoritarian family, a social hierarchy and a sovereign whose only constraint was his relationship with God. Under these circumstances, anything other than passive obedience would be “vicious, blasphemous and intellectually absurd.” So, Locke needed to refute Filmer and in Dunn’s words: “rescue the contractarian account of political obligation from the criticism of impiety and absurdity. Only in this way could he restore to the Anglican gentry a coherent basis for moral autonomy or a practical initiative in the field of politics.” (Dunn, 1968, 50)

The First Treatise of Government is a polemical work aimed at refuting the theological basis for the patriarchal version of the Divine Right of Kings doctrine put forth by Sir Robert Filmer. Locke singles out Filmer’s contention that men are not “naturally free” as the key issue, for that is the “ground” or premise on which Filmer erects his argument for the claim that all “legitimate” government is “absolute monarchy”—kings being descended from the first man, Adam, and their subjects being naturally slaves. Early in the First Treatise Locke denies that either scripture or reason supports Filmer’s premise or arguments. In what follows in the First Treatise , Locke minutely examines key Biblical passages.

While The Second Treatise of Government provides Locke’s positive theory of government, it also continues his argument against Sir Robert Filmer’s claims that monarchs legitimately hold absolute power over their subjects. Locke holds that Filmer’s view is sufficiently incoherent to lead to governments being established by force and violence. Thus, Locke claims he must provide an alternative account of the origin of government “lest men fall into the dangerous belief that all government in the world is merely the product of force and violence” ( Treatises II,1,4). Locke’s account involves several devices which were common in seventeenth and eighteenth century political philosophy—natural rights theory and the social contract. Natural rights are those rights which we are supposed to have as human beings before ever government comes into being. We might suppose, that like other animals, we have a natural right to struggle for our survival. Locke will argue that we have a right to the means to survive. When Locke comes to explain how government comes into being, he uses the idea that people agree that their condition in the state of nature is unsatisfactory, and so agree to transfer some of their rights to a central government, while retaining others. This is the theory of the social contract. There are many versions of natural rights theory and the social contract in seventeenth and eighteenth century European political philosophy, some conservative and some radical. Locke’s version belongs on the radical side of the spectrum. These radical natural right theories influenced the ideologies of the American and French revolutions.

Locke’s strategy for refuting Filmer’s claims that monarchs have absolute power over their subjects is to show that Filmer is conflating a whole variety of limited powers, all of which might be held by one man and thus give the false appearance that a king has absolute power over wives, children, servants and slaves as well as subjects of a commonwealth. When properly distinguished, however, and the limitations of each displayed, it becomes clear that monarchs have no legitimate absolute power over their subjects.

An important part of Locke’s project in the Second Treatise is to figure out what the role of legitimate government is, thus allowing him to distinguish the nature of illegitimate government. Once this is done, the basis for legitimate revolution becomes clear. Figuring out what the proper or legitimate role of civil government is would be a difficult task indeed if one were to examine the vast complexity of existing governments. How should one proceed? One strategy is to consider what life is like in the absence of civil government. Presumably this is a simpler state, one which may be easier to understand. Then one might see what role civil government ought to play. This is the strategy which Locke pursues, following Hobbes and others. So, in the first chapter of the Second Treatise Locke defines political power.

Political power , then, I take to be a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the common-wealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good. ( Treatises, II, 1,3)

In the second chapter of The Second Treatise Locke describes the state in which there is no government with real political power. This is the state of nature. It is sometimes assumed that the state of nature is a state in which there is no government at all. This is only partially true. It is possible to have in the state of nature either no government, illegitimate government, or legitimate government with less than full political power. (See the section on the state of nature in the entry on Locke’s political philosophy.)

If we consider the state of nature before there was government, it is a state of political equality in which there is no natural superior or inferior. From this equality flows the obligation to mutual love and the duties that people owe one another, and the great maxims of justice and charity. Was there ever such a state? There has been considerable debate about this. Still, it is plain that both Hobbes and Locke would answer this question affirmatively. Whenever people have not agreed to establish a common political authority, they remain in the state of nature. It’s like saying that people are in the state of being naturally single until they are married. Locke clearly thinks one can find the state of nature in his time at least in the “inland, vacant places of America” ( Second Treatise V. 36) and in the relations between different peoples. Perhaps the historical development of states also went though the stages of a state of nature. An alternative possibility is that the state of nature is not a real historical state, but rather a theoretical construct, intended to help determine the proper function of government. If one rejects the historicity of states of nature, one may still find them a useful analytical device. For Locke, it is very likely both.

According to Locke, God created man and we are, in effect, God’s property. The chief end set us by our creator as a species and as individuals is survival. A wise and omnipotent God, having made people and sent them into this world:

…by his order and about his business, they are his property whose workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another’s pleasure: and being furnished with like faculties, sharing all in one community of nature, there cannot be supposed any subordination among us, that may authorize us to destroy one another, as if we were made for one another’s uses, as the inferior ranks of creatures are for our’s. ( Treatises II,2,6)

It follows immediately that “he has no liberty to destroy himself, or so much as any creature in his possession, yet when some nobler use than its bare possession calls for it” ( Treatises II.2.6). So, murder and suicide violate the divine purpose.

If one takes survival as the end, then we may ask what are the means necessary to that end. On Locke’s account, these turn out to be life, liberty, health and property. Since the end is set by God, on Locke’s view we have a right to the means to that end. So we have rights to life, liberty, health and property. These are natural rights, that is they are rights that we have in a state of nature before the introduction of civil government, and all people have these rights equally.

There is also a law of nature. It is the Golden Rule, interpreted in terms of natural rights. Thus Locke writes:

The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone: and reason which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions…. ( Treatises II.2.6)

Locke tells us that the law of nature is revealed by reason. Locke makes the point about the law that it commands what is best for us. If it did not, he says, the law would vanish for it would not be obeyed. It is in this sense that Locke means that reason reveals the law. If you reflect on what is best for yourself and others, given the goal of survival and our natural equality, you will come to this conclusion. (See the section on the law of nature in the entry on Locke’s Political Philosophy.)

Locke does not intend his account of the state of nature as a sort of utopia. Rather it serves as an analytical device that explains why it becomes necessary to introduce civil government and what the legitimate function of civil government is. Thus, as Locke conceives it, there are problems with life in the state of nature. The law of nature, like civil laws can be violated. There are no police, prosecutors or judges in the state of nature as these are all representatives of a government with full political power. The victims, then, must enforce the law of nature in the state of nature. In addition to our other rights in the state of nature, we have the rights to enforce the law and to judge on our own behalf. We may, Locke tells us, help one another. We may intervene in cases where our own interests are not directly under threat to help enforce the law of nature. This right eventually serves as the justification for legitimate rebellion. Still, in the state of nature, the person who is most likely to enforce the law under these circumstances is the person who has been wronged. The basic principle of justice is that the punishment should be proportionate to the crime. But when the victims are judging the seriousness of the crime, they are more likely to judge it of greater severity than might an impartial judge. As a result, there will be regular miscarriages of justice. This is perhaps the most important problem with the state of nature.

In chapters 3 and 4, Locke defines the states of war and slavery. The state of war is a state in which someone has a sedate and settled intention of violating someone’s right to life (and thus all their other rights). Such a person puts themselves into a state of war with the person whose life they intend to take. In such a war the person who intends to violate someone’s right to life is an unjust aggressor. This is not the normal relationship between people enjoined by the law of nature in the state of nature. Locke is distancing himself from Hobbes who had made the state of nature and the state of war equivalent terms. For Locke, the state of nature is ordinarily one in which we follow the Golden Rule interpreted in terms of natural rights, and thus love our fellow human creatures. The state of war only comes about when someone proposes to violate someone else’s rights. Thus, on Locke’s theory of war, there will always be an innocent victim on one side and an unjust aggressor on the other.

Slavery is the state of being in the absolute or arbitrary power of another. On Locke’s definition of slavery, there is only one rather remarkable way to become a legitimate slave. In order to do so, one must be an unjust aggressor defeated in war. The just victor then has the option to either kill the aggressor or enslave them. Locke tells us that the state of slavery is the continuation of the state of war between a lawful conqueror and a captive, in which the conqueror delays taking the life of the captive, and instead makes use of him. This is a continued war because if conqueror and captive make some compact for obedience on the one side and limited power on the other, the state of slavery ceases and becomes a relation between a master and a servant in which the master only has limited power over his servant. The reason that slavery ceases with the compact is that “no man, can, by agreement pass over to another that which he hath not in himself, a power over his own life” ( Treatises II.4.24). Legitimate slavery is an important concept in Locke’s political philosophy largely because it tells us what the legitimate extent of despotic power is and defines and illuminates by contrast the nature of illegitimate slavery. Illegitimate slavery is that state in which someone possesses absolute or despotic power over someone else without just cause. Locke holds that it is this illegitimate state of slavery which absolute monarchs wish to impose upon their subjects. It is very likely for this reason that legitimate slavery is so narrowly defined. This shows that the chapter on slavery plays a crucial role in Locke’s argument against Sir Robert Filmer and thus could not have been easily dispensed with. Still, it is possible that Locke had an additional purpose or perhaps a quite different reason for writing about slavery.

There has been a steady stream of articles and books over the last sixty years arguing that given Locke’s involvement with trade and colonial government, the theory of slavery in the Second Treatise was intended to justify the institutions and practices of Afro-American slavery. If this were the case, Locke’s philosophy would not contradict his actions as an investor and colonial administrator. However, there are strong objections to this view. Had he intended to justify Afro-American slavery, Locke would have done much better with a vastly more inclusive definition of legitimate slavery than the one he gives. It is sometimes suggested that Locke’s account of “just war” is so vague that it could easily be twisted to justify the institutions and practices of Afro-American slavery. This, however, is also not the case. In the chapter “Of Conquest” Locke explicitly lists the limits of the legitimate power of conquerors. These limits on who can become a legitimate slave and what the powers of a just conqueror are ensure that this theory of conquest and slavery would condemn the institutions and practices of Afro-American slavery in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Nonetheless, the debate continues. One element of the debate has to do with Locke’s role in the writing of the Fundamental Constitutions of the Carolinas . David Armitage in his 2004 article “John Locke, Carolina and the Two Treatises of Government” argues that Locke was involved in a revision of the Fundamental Constitution of the Carolinas at the very time he was writing The Two Treatises of Government . The provision that “Every Freedman of the Carolinas has absolute power and authority over his negro slaves” remained in the document unchanged. In his 2016 book The Ashley Cooper Plan , Thomas Wilson gives a detailed account of Ashley Cooper’s intentions for the Carolina colony and how Cooper’s intent was thwarted by Barbadian slave owners who changed Carolina society from a society with slaves to a slave society. L. H. Roper, in his 2004 book Conceiving Carolina: Property, Planters and Plots 1662–1729 , offers a different account of what went wrong, focusing on conflicts over the trade in Indian slaves. James Farr’s article “Locke, Natural Law and New World Slavery” (2008) is one of the best statements of the position that Locke intended his theory of slavery to apply to English absolutism and not Afro-American slavery while noting that Locke’s involvement with slavery has ruined his reputation as the great champion of liberty Roger Woolhouse in his recent biography of Locke (Woolhouse 2007: 187) remarks that “Though there is no consensus on the whole question, there certainly seems to be ‘a glaring contradiction between his theories and Afro-American slavery’”.

Recently, there has been a debate over whose theory of slavery and absolutism Locke was attacking. Johan Olsthoorn and Laurens van Apeldoorn (2020) argue that Locke’s account of slavery and in particular, that no person can consensually establish absolute rule over themselves with all its consequences has little force against other classical contract theories, in particular those of Grotius and Puffendorf. Both Grotius and Puffendorf defended both absolutism and colonial slavery.

Felis Waldmann in “Slavery and Absolutism in Locke’s Two Treatises: A Response to Olsthoorn and van Apeldoorn” objects to a number of their claims finding others not relevant. Most notably, he objects to these claims: First, “Locke is working with an idiosyncratic conception of slavery and absolute rule repudiated by prominent early modern thinkers defending political absolutism.” Second: “Like Filmer, Locke maintains that absolute rulers may arbitrarily kill and maim their subjects at will, by dint of having a dominium in the latter’s lives.” Finally, he objects to the claim that: “Early modern natural lawyers, from Grotius onward, conceptualized slavery rather differently, insisting that enslaved people were not owned in the way we own things (which may be destroyed at will)” (Waldmann 7).

In brief, Waldmann’s response to the first claim is that Filmer accurately represented the Royalist position in the late 1670s and early 1680s and so Locke’s account is not a straw man. Thus, Locke is attacking Filmer’s account of slavery and not some weak and extreme version of the argument for absolutism that no one held. Waldmann suggests that the second claim magnifies this tendency of the two authors’ portrayal of Locke’s argument as not responding to the standard arguments for absolutism. Thus, Olsthoorn and van Apeldoorn attribute Filmer’s position to Locke. Waldmann concludes that the claims of Olsthoorn and van Apeldoorn that since Locke’s position on slavery was significantly different from those of Grotius and Puffendorf, it had little force against them is, in fact, the case. But he thinks this is of little importance since Locke was not arguing against them. One suggestion he considers plausible is that Locke is aiming his argument against the possibility of self-enslavement at Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes was recognized by his contemporaries as asserting both that one could by contract enslave oneself and that the king had dominium, over his subjects.

William Uzgalis, in his 2017 chapter “John Locke, Slavery and Indian Lands,” holds that Locke has two theories of slavery, one of them of legitimate slavery and the other of illegitimate slavery. Note that the authors discussed above simply don’t make this distinction. If they had, it would be plain that while Locke shares with Filmer the dominium conception of slavery that allows a master to kill or maim a slave, neither theory belongs to Filmer, and if Locke is correct about royal absolutism and given the character of the practices of the slave trade and colonial slavery, both absolutism at home and the slave trade and colonial slavery fall under the theory of illegitimate slavery. Neither Grotius, Puffendorf or Hobbes has an explicit theory of illegitimate slavery. Uzgalis also notes that Grotius and Puffendorf provided claims that Locke could have adopted had he wished to justify the slave trade and slavery in the colonies. Still, he denies them all, and with good reason. He would have substantially weakened his argument against the kind of absolutism he attributed to Filmer and the Stuarts had he done so. This suggests that he was crafting an alternative theory and not arguing against its competitors, with the exception, perhaps, of Hobbes.

Holly Brewer in her 2017 article “Slavery, Sovereignty, and ‘Inheritable Blood’, Reconsidering John Locke and the Origins of American Slavery” argues for a different approach to these questions. She presents evidence that the Stuart kings, and Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York, in particular, were not just interested in absolute government at home; they actively promoted the Royal Africa Company, the slave trade and slavery in the colonies as it provided considerable amounts of money to the royal coffers. James was the Governor (the President) of the Royal Africa Company and Admiral of the English fleet. Lord Shaftesbury, Locke’s patron, was the sub-governor, and Locke assisted him. Using the fleet, James attacked and captured Dutch forts on the coast of Africa to make bases for the Royal Africa Company and deprive the Dutch of them. The Stuarts minted guinea coins to celebrate these efforts. After becoming King, James continued as Governor of the Royal Africa Company. Thus Brewer underlines the similarities and connections between the absolutism Locke objected to at home and the slave trade and slavery in the colonies. She argues that the spread of slavery needs to be understood as an English imperial policy and not something that occurred in different times and places unconnected with one another. She also claims that while Locke was a member of King William III’s Board of Trade in the waning years of the seventeenth century, he sought to undo Stuart policies concerning slavery in the colonies.

Chapter 5 “Of Property” is one of the most famous, influential and important chapters in the Second Treatise of Government . Indeed, some of the most controversial issues about the Second Treatise come from varying interpretations of it. In this chapter Locke, in effect, describes the evolution of the state of nature to the point where it becomes expedient for those in it to found a civil government. So, it is not only an account of the nature and origin of private property but leads up to the explanation of why civil government replaces the state of nature (see the section on property in the entry on Locke’s political philosophy).

In discussing the origin of private property Locke begins by noting that God gave the earth to all men in common. Thus there is a question about how private property comes to be. Locke finds it a serious difficulty. He points out, however, that we are supposed to make use of the earth “for the best advantage of life and convenience” ( Treatises II.5.25). What then is the means to appropriate property from the common store? Locke argues that private property does not come about by universal consent. If one had to go about and ask everyone if one could eat these berries, one would starve to death before getting everyone’s agreement. Locke holds that we have property in our own person. And the labor of our body and the work of our hands properly belong to us. So, when one picks up acorns or berries, they thereby belong to the person who picked them up. There has been some controversy about what Locke means by “labor”. Daniel Russell claims that for Locke, labor is a goal-directed activity that converts materials that might meet our needs into resources that actually do (Russell 2004). This interpretation of what Locke means by “labor” connects nicely with his claim that we have a natural law obligation first to preserve ourselves and then to help in the preservation and flourishing of others.

One might think that one could then acquire as much as one wished, but this is not the case. Locke introduces at least two important qualifications on how much property can be acquired. The first qualification has to do with waste. Locke writes:

As much as anyone can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, so much by his labor he may fix a property in; whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to others. ( Treatises II.5.31)

Since originally, populations were small and resources great, living within the bounds set by reason, there would be little quarrel or contention over property, for a single man could make use of only a very small part of what was available.

Note that Locke has, thus far, been talking about hunting and gathering, and the kinds of limitations which reason imposes on the kind of property that hunters and gatherers hold. In the next section he turns to agriculture and the ownership of land and the kinds of limitations there are on that kind of property. In effect, we see the evolution of the state of nature from a hunter/gatherer kind of society to that of a farming and agricultural society. Once again it is labor which imposes limitations upon how much land can be enclosed. It is only as much as one can work. But there is an additional qualification. Locke says:

Nor was this appropriation of any parcel of land , by improving it, any prejudice to any other man, since there was still enough, and as good left; and more than the as yet unprovided could use. So that, in effect, there was never the less for others because of his inclosure for himself: for he that leaves as much as another can make use of, does as good as take nothing at all. No body could consider himself injured by the drinking of another man, though he took a good draught, who had a whole river of the same water left to quench his thirst: and the case of land and water, where there is enough, is perfectly the same. ( Treatises II.5.33)

The next stage in the evolution of the state of nature involves the introduction of money. Locke remarks that:

… before the desire of having more than one needed had altered the intrinsic value of things, which depends only on their usefulness to the life of man; or had agreed, that a little piece of yellow metal, which would keep without wasting or decay, should be worth a great piece of flesh, or a whole heap of corn; though men had a right to appropriate by their labor, each one of himself, as much of the things of nature, as he could use; yet this could not be much, nor to the prejudice of others, where the same plenty was left to those who would use the same industry. ( Treatises II.5.37)

So, before the introduction of money, there was a degree of economic equality imposed on mankind both by reason and the barter system. And men were largely confined to the satisfaction of their needs and conveniences. Most of the necessities of life are relatively short lived—berries, plums, venison and so forth. One could reasonably barter one’s berries for nuts which would last not weeks but perhaps a whole year. And says Locke:

…if he would give his nuts for a piece of metal, pleased with its color, or exchange his sheep for shells, or wool for a sparkling pebble or diamond, and keep those by him all his life, he invaded not the right of others, he might heap up as much of these durable things as he pleased; the exceeding of the bounds of his property not lying in the largeness of his possessions, but the perishing of anything uselessly in it. ( Treatises II.5.146)

The introduction of money is necessary for the differential increase in property, with resulting economic inequality. Without money there would be no point in going beyond the economic equality of the earlier stage. In a money economy, different degrees of industry could give men vastly different proportions.

This partage of things in an inequality of private possessions, men have made practicable out of the bounds of society, and without compact, only by putting a value on gold and silver, and tacitly agreeing to the use of money: for in governments, the laws regulate the rights of property, and the possession of land is determined by positive constitutions. ( Treatises II.5.50)

The implication is that it is the introduction of money, which causes inequality, which in turn multiplies the causes of quarrels and contentions and increased numbers of violations of the law of nature. This leads to the decision to create a civil government. Before turning to the institution of civil government, however, we should ask what happens to the qualifications on the acquisition of property after the advent of money? One answer proposed by C. B. Macpherson in The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism is that the qualifications are completely set aside, and we now have a system for the unlimited acquisition of private property. This does not seem to be correct. It seems plain, rather, that at least the non-spoilage qualification is satisfied, because money does not spoil. The other qualifications may be rendered somewhat irrelevant by the advent of the conventions about property adopted in civil society. This leaves open the question of whether Locke approved of these changes. Macpherson, who takes Locke to be a spokesman for a proto-capitalist system, sees Locke as advocating the unlimited acquisition of wealth. James Tully, on the other side, in A Discourse of Property holds that Locke sees the new conditions, the change in values and the economic inequality which arise as a result of the advent of money, as the fall of man. Tully sees Locke as a persistent and powerful critic of self-interest. This remarkable difference in interpretation has been a significant topic for debates among scholars over the last forty years. Though the Second Treatise of Government may leave this question difficult to determine, one might consider Locke’s remark in Some Thoughts Concerning Education that

Covetousness and the desire to having in our possession and our dominion more than we have need of, being the root of all evil, should be early and carefully weeded out and the contrary quality of being ready to impart to others inculcated. (G&T 1996: 81)

Let us then turn to the institution of civil government.

Just as natural rights and natural law theory had a fluorescence in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, so did the social contract theory. Why is Locke a social contract theorist? Is it merely that this was one prevailing way of thinking about government at the time which Locke blindly adopted? The answer is that there is something about Locke’s project which pushes him strongly in the direction of the social contract. One might hold that governments were originally instituted by force, and that no agreement was involved. Were Locke to adopt this view, he would be forced to go back on many of the things which are at the heart of his project in the Second Treatise , though cases like the Norman conquest force him to admit that citizens may come to accept a government that was originally forced on them. Remember that the Second Treatise provides Locke’s positive theory of government, and that he explicitly says that he must provide an alternative to the view

that all government in the world is merely the product of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules than that of the beasts, where the strongest carries it … . ( Treatises II, 1, 4)

So, while Locke might admit that some governments come about through force or violence, he would be destroying the most central and vital distinction, that between legitimate and illegitimate civil government, if he admitted that legitimate government can come about in this way. So, for Locke, legitimate government is instituted by the explicit consent of those governed. (See the section on consent, political obligation, and the ends of government in the entry on Locke’s political philosophy.) Those who make this agreement transfer to the government their right of executing the law of nature and judging their own case. These are the powers which they give to the central government, and this is what makes the justice system of governments a legitimate function of such governments.

Ruth Grant has persuasively argued that the establishment of government is in effect a two step process. Universal consent is necessary to form a political community. Consent to join a community once given is binding and cannot be withdrawn. This makes political communities stable. Grant writes: “Having established that the membership in a community entails the obligation to abide by the will of the community, the question remains: Who rules?” (1987: 114–115). The answer to this question is determined by majority rule. The point is that universal consent is necessary to establish a political community, majority consent to answer the question who is to rule such a community. Universal consent and majority consent are thus different in kind, not just in degree. Grant writes:

Locke’s argument for the right of the majority is the theoretical ground for the distinction between duty to society and duty to government, the distinction that permits an argument for resistance without anarchy. When the designated government dissolves, men remain obligated to society acting through majority rule. (1987: 119)

It is entirely possible for the majority to confer the rule of the community on a king and his heirs, or a group of oligarchs or on a democratic assembly. Thus, the social contract is not inextricably linked to democracy. Still, a government of any kind must perform the legitimate function of a civil government.

Locke is now in a position to explain the function of a legitimate government and distinguish it from illegitimate government. The aim of such a legitimate government is to preserve, so far as possible, the rights to life, liberty, health and property of its citizens, and to prosecute and punish those of its citizens who violate the rights of others and to pursue the public good even where this may conflict with the rights of individuals. In doing this it provides something unavailable in the state of nature, an impartial judge to determine the severity of the crime, and to set a punishment proportionate to the crime. This is one of the main reasons why civil society is an improvement on the state of nature. An illegitimate government will fail to protect the rights to life, liberty, health and property of its subjects, and in the worst cases, such an illegitimate government will claim to be able to violate the rights of its subjects, that is it will claim to have despotic power over its subjects. Since Locke is arguing against the position of Sir Robert Filmer who held that patriarchal power and political power are the same, and that in effect these amount to despotic power, Locke is at pains to distinguish these three forms of power, and to show that they are not equivalent. Thus at the beginning of chapter 15 “Of Paternal, Political and Despotic Power Considered Together” he writes:

THOUGH I have had occasion to speak of these before, yet the great mistakes of late about government, having as I suppose arisen from confounding these distinct powers one with another, it may not be amiss, to consider them together.

Chapters 6 and 7 give Locke’s account of paternal and political power respectively. Paternal power is limited. It lasts only through the minority of children, and has other limitations. Political power, derived as it is from the transfer of the power of individuals to enforce the law of nature, has with it the right to kill in the interest of preserving the rights of the citizens or otherwise supporting the public good. Legitimate despotic power, by contrast, implies the right to take the life, liberty, health and at least some of the property of any person subject to such a power.

At the end of the Second Treatise we learn about the nature of illegitimate civil governments and the conditions under which rebellion and regicide are legitimate and appropriate. As noted above, scholars now hold that the book was written during the Exclusion Crisis, and may have been written to justify a general insurrection and the assassination of the king of England and his brother. The argument for legitimate revolution follows from making the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate civil government. A legitimate civil government seeks to preserve its subjects’ life, health, liberty, and property insofar as this is compatible with the public good. Because it does this, it deserves obedience. An illegitimate civil government seeks to systematically violate the natural rights of its subjects. It seeks to make them illegitimate slaves. Because an illegitimate civil government does this, it puts itself in a state of nature and a state of war with its subjects. The magistrate or king of such a state violates the law of nature and so makes himself into a dangerous beast of prey who operates on the principle that might makes right, or that the strongest carries it. In such circumstances, rebellion is legitimate, as is the killing of such a dangerous beast of prey. Thus Locke justifies rebellion and regicide under certain circumstances. Presumably, this justification was going to be offered for the killing of the King of England and his brother had the Rye House Plot succeeded. Even if this was not Locke’s intention, it still would have served that purpose admirably.

The issue of religious toleration was of widespread interest in Europe in the seventeenth century, largely because religious intolerance with accompanying violence was so pervasive. The Reformation had split Europe into competing religious camps, and this provoked civil wars and massive religious persecutions. John Marshall, in his massive study John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture notes that the 1680s were the climactic decade for this kind of persecution. The Dutch Republic, where Locke spent years in exile, had been founded as a secular state which would allow religious differences. This was a reaction to the Catholic persecution of Protestants. However, once the Calvinist Church gained power, they began persecuting other sects, such as the Remonstrants, who disagreed with them. Nonetheless, The Dutch Republic remained the most tolerant country in Europe. In France, religious conflict had been temporarily quieted by the edict of Nantes. But in 1685, the year in which Locke wrote the First Letter concerning religious toleration, Louis XIV had revoked the Edict of Nantes, and the Huguenots were being persecuted. Though prohibited from doing so, some 200,000 emigrated, while probably 700,000 were forced to convert to Catholicism. People in England were keenly aware of the events taking place in France.

In England itself, religious conflict dominated the seventeenth century, contributing in important respects to the coming of the English Civil War, and the abolishing of the Anglican Church during the Protectorate. After the Restoration of Charles II, Anglicans in parliament passed laws that repressed both Catholics and Protestant sects such as Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers and Unitarians who did not agree with the doctrines or practices of the state Church. Of these various dissenting sects, some were closer to the Anglicans, others more remote. One reason, among others, why King Charles may have found Shaftesbury useful was that they were both concerned about religious toleration. They parted when it became clear that the King was mainly interested in toleration for Catholics, and Shaftesbury for Protestant dissenters.

One widely discussed strategy for reducing religious conflict in England was called comprehension. The idea was to reduce the doctrines and practices of the Anglican church to a minimum so that most, if not all, of the dissenting sects would be included in the state church. For those which even this measure would not serve, there was to be toleration. Toleration we may define as a lack of state persecution. Neither of these strategies made much progress during the course of the Restoration.

When Locke fled to Holland after the discovery of the Rye house plot, he became involved with a group of scholars advocating religious toleration. This group included Benjamin Furly, a quaker with whom Locke lived for a while, the noted philosopher Pierre Bayle, several Dutch theologians, and many others. This group read all the arguments for religious intolerance and discussed them in book and conversation clubs. Members of the group considered toleration not only for Protestants and Protestant dissenters but Jews, Moslems, and Catholics. A recent discovery of a page of Locke’s reflections on toleration of Catholics shows that Locke considered even the pros and cons of toleration for Catholics (Walmsley and Waldmann 2019). Some members of the group also wrote tolerationist articles and books. They helped each other get jobs. Some of their members founded journals that reviewed books and articles on religious, scientific, and other topics. The group took the notion of free speech, civility, and politeness in discourse seriously. They called themselves the ‘the Republic of Letters’ or in Locke’s phrase ‘the commonwealth of learning.’

What were Locke’s religious views and where did he fit into the debates about religious toleration? This is a quite difficult question to answer. Religion and Christianity in particular, is perhaps the most important influence on the shape of Locke’s philosophy. But what kind of Christian was Locke? Locke’s family were Puritans. At Oxford, Locke avoided becoming an Anglican priest. Still, Locke himself claimed to be an Anglican until he died and Locke’s nineteenth-century biographer Fox Bourne thought that Locke was an Anglican. Others have identified him with the Latitudinarians—a movement among Anglicans to argue for a reasonable Christianity that dissenters ought to accept. Still, there are some reasons to think that Locke was neither an orthodox Anglican or a Latitudinarian. Locke got Isaac Newton to write Newton’s most powerful anti-Trinitarian tract. Locke arranged to have the work published anonymously in Holland though in the end, Newton decided not to publish (McLachlan 1941). This strongly suggests that Locke too was by this time an Arian or unitarian. (Arius, c. 250–336, asserted the primacy of the Father over the Son and thus rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and was condemned as a heretic at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Newton held that the Church had gone in the wrong direction in condemning Arius.) Given that one main theme of Locke’s Letter on Toleration is that there should be a separation between Church and State, this does not seem like the view of a man devoted to a state religion. It might appear that Locke’s writing The Reasonableness of Christianity in which he argues that the basic doctrines of Christianity are few and compatible with reason make him a Latitudinarian. Yet Richard Ashcraft has argued that comprehension for the Anglicans meant conforming to the existing practices of the Anglican Church; that is, the abandonment of religious dissent. Ashcraft also suggests that Latitudinarians were thus not a moderate middle ground between contending extremes but part of one of the extremes—“the acceptable face of the persecution of religious dissent” (Ashcraft 1992: 155). Ashcraft holds that while the Latitudinarians may have represented the “rational theology” of the Anglican church, there was a competing dissenting “rational theology”. Thus, while it is true that Locke had Latitudinarian friends, given Ashcraft’s distinction between Anglican and dissenting “rational theologies”, it is entirely possible that The Reasonableness of Christianity is a work of dissenting “rational theology”.

Locke had been thinking, talking and writing about religious toleration since 1659. His views evolved. In the early 1660s he very likely was an orthodox Anglican. He and Shaftesbury had instituted religious toleration in the Fundamental Constitutions of the Carolinas (1669). He wrote the Epistola de Tolerantia in Latin in 1685 while in exile in Holland. He very likely was seeing Protestant refugees pouring over the borders from France where Louis XIV had just revoked the Edict of Nantes. Holland itself was a Calvinist theocracy with significant problems with religious toleration. But Locke’s Letter does not confine itself to the issues of the time. Locke gives a principled account of religious toleration, though this is mixed in with arguments which apply only to Christians, and perhaps in some cases only to Protestants. He excluded both Catholics and atheists from religious toleration. In the case of Catholics it was because he regarded them as agents of a foreign power. Because they do not believe in God, atheists, on Locke’s account: “Promises, covenants and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist” (Mendus 1991: 47). He gives his general defense of religious toleration while continuing the anti-Papist rhetoric of the Country party which sought to exclude James II from the throne.

Locke’s arguments for religious toleration connect nicely to his account of civil government. Locke defines life, liberty, health and property as our civil interests. These are the proper concern of a magistrate or civil government. The magistrate can use force and violence where this is necessary to preserve civil interests against attack. This is the central function of the state. One’s religious concerns with salvation, however, are not within the domain of civil interests, and so lie outside of the legitimate concern of the magistrate or the civil government. In effect, Locke adds an additional right to the natural rights of life, liberty, health and property—the right of freedom to choose one’s own road to salvation. (See the section on Toleration in the entry on Locke’s Political Philosophy.)

Locke holds that the use of force by the state to get people to hold certain beliefs or engage in certain ceremonies or practices is illegitimate. The chief means which the magistrate has at her disposal is force, but force is not an effective means for changing or maintaining belief. Suppose then, that the magistrate uses force so as to make people profess that they believe. Locke writes:

A sweet religion, indeed, that obliges men to dissemble, and tell lies to both God and man, for the salvation of their souls! If the magistrate thinks to save men thus, he seems to understand little of the way of salvation; and if he does it not in order to save them, why is he so solicitous of the articles of faith as to enact them by a law? (Mendus 1991: 41)

So, religious persecution by the state is inappropriate. Locke holds that “Whatever is lawful in the commonwealth cannot be prohibited by the magistrate in the church”. This means that the use of bread and wine, or even the sacrificing of a calf could not be prohibited by the magistrate.

If there are competing churches, one might ask which one should have the power? The answer is clearly that power should go to the true church and not to the heretical church. But Locke claims this amounts to saying nothing. For every church believes itself to be the true church, and there is no judge but God who can determine which of these claims is correct. Thus, skepticism about the possibility of religious knowledge is central to Locke’s argument for religious toleration.

Finally, for an account of the influence of Locke’s works, see the supplementary document: Supplement on the Influence of Locke’s Works

Locke’s Works

Oxford University Press is in the process of producing a new edition of all of Locke’s works. This will supersede The Works of John Locke of which the 1823 edition is probably the most standard. The new Clarendon editions began with Peter Nidditch’s edition of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1975. The Oxford Clarendon editions contain much of the material of the Lovelace collection, purchased and donated to Oxford by Paul Mellon. This treasure trove of Locke’s works and letters, which includes early drafts of the Essay and much other material, comes down from Peter King, Locke’s nephew, who inherited Locke’s papers. Access to these papers has given scholars in the twentieth century a much better view of Locke’s philosophical development and provided a window into the details of his activities which is truly remarkable. Hence the new edition of Locke’s works will very likely be definitive.

In addition to the Oxford Press edition, there are a few editions of some of Locke’s works which are worth noting.

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How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

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Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054

Theory of ideas

Primary and secondary qualities, personal identity, association of ideas.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Locke remained in Holland for more than five years (1683–89). While there he made new and important friends and associated with other exiles from England . He also wrote his first Letter on Toleration , published anonymously in Latin in 1689, and completed An Essay Concerning Human Understanding .

A dominant theme of the Essay is the question with which the original discussion in Exeter House began: What is the capacity of the human mind for understanding and knowledge ? In his prefatory chapter, Locke explains that the Essay is not offered as a contribution to knowledge itself but as a means of clearing away some of the intellectual rubbish that stands in the way of knowledge. He had in mind not only the medieval Scholastics and their followers but also some of his older contemporaries. The Scholastics—those who took Aristotle and his commentators to be the source of all philosophical knowledge and who still dominated teaching in universities throughout Europe—were guilty of introducing technical terms into philosophy (such as substantial form , vegetative soul , abhorrence of a vacuum , and intentional species ) that upon examination had no clear sense—or, more often, no sense at all. Locke saw the Scholastics as an enemy that had to be defeated before his own account of knowledge could be widely accepted, something about which he was entirely right.

Locke begins the Essay by repudiating the view that certain kinds of knowledge—knowledge of the existence of God , of certain moral truths, or of the laws of logic or mathematics —are innate, imprinted on the human mind at its creation. (The doctrine of innate ideas , which was widely held to justify religious and moral claims, had its origins in the philosophy of Plato [428/427–348/347 bce ], who was still a powerful force in 17th-century English philosophy.) Locke argues to the contrary that an idea cannot be said to be “in the mind” until one is conscious of it. But human infants have no conception of God or of moral, logical, or mathematical truths, and to suppose that they do, despite obvious evidence to the contrary, is merely an unwarranted assumption to save a position. Furthermore, travelers to distant lands have reported encounters with people who have no conception of God and who think it morally justified to eat their enemies. Such diversity of religious and moral opinion cannot not be explained by the doctrine of innate ideas but can be explained, Locke held, on his own account of the origins of ideas.

In Book II he turns to that positive account. He begins by claiming that the sources of all knowledge are, first, sense experience (the red colour of a rose, the ringing sound of a bell, the taste of salt, and so on) and, second, “ reflection ” (one’s awareness that one is thinking , that one is happy or sad, that one is having a certain sensation, and so on). These are not themselves, however, instances of knowledge in the strict sense, but they provide the mind with the materials of knowledge. Locke calls the materials so provided “ideas.” Ideas are objects “before the mind,” not in the sense that they are physical objects but in the sense that they represent physical objects to consciousness .

All ideas are either simple or complex. All simple ideas are derived from sense experience, and all complex ideas are derived from the combination (“compounding”) of simple and complex ideas by the mind. Whereas complex ideas can be analyzed, or broken down, into the simple or complex ideas of which they are composed, simple ideas cannot be. The complex idea of a snowball, for example, can be analyzed into the simple ideas of whiteness, roundness, and solidity (among possibly others), but none of the latter ideas can be analyzed into anything simpler. In Locke’s view, therefore, a major function of philosophical inquiry is the analysis of the meanings of terms through the identification of the ideas that give rise to them. The project of analyzing supposedly complex ideas (or concepts) subsequently became an important theme in philosophy, especially within the analytic tradition, which began at the turn of the 20th century and became dominant at Cambridge , Oxford , and many other universities, especially in the English-speaking world.

In the course of his account, Locke raises a host of related issues, many of which have since been the source of much debate. One of them is his illuminating distinction between the “primary” and “secondary” qualities of physical objects. Primary qualities include size, shape, weight, and solidity, among others, and secondary qualities include colour, taste, and smell. Ideas of primary qualities resemble the qualities as they are in the object—as one’s idea of the roundness of a snowball resembles the roundness of the snowball itself. However, ideas of secondary qualities do not resemble any property in the object; they are instead a product of the power that the object has to cause certain kinds of ideas in the mind of the perceiver. Thus, the whiteness of the snowball is merely an idea produced in the mind by the interaction between light, the primary qualities of the snowball, and the perceiver’s sense organs.

Locke discussed another problem that had not before received sustained attention: that of personal identity . Assuming one is the same person as the person who existed last week or the person who was born many years ago, what fact makes this so? Locke was careful to distinguish the notion of sameness of person from the related notions of sameness of body and sameness of man, or human being . Sameness of body requires identity of matter, and sameness of human being depends on continuity of life (as would the sameness of a certain oak tree from acorn to sapling to maturity); but sameness of person requires something else. Locke’s proposal was that personal identity consists of continuity of consciousness . One is the same person as the person who existed last week or many years ago if one has memories of the earlier person’s conscious experiences. Locke’s account of personal identity became a standard (and highly contested) position in subsequent discussions.

A further influential section of Book II is Locke’s treatment of the association of ideas . Ideas, Locke observes, can become linked in the mind in such a way that having one idea immediately leads one to form another idea, even though the two ideas are not necessarily connected with each other. Instead, they are linked through their having been experienced together on numerous occasions in the past. The psychological tendency to associate ideas through experience, Locke says, has important implications for the education of children. In order to learn to adopt good habits and to avoid bad ones, children must be made to associate rewards with good behaviour and punishments with bad behaviour. Investigations into the associations that people make between ideas can reveal much about how human beings think. Through his influence on researchers such as the English physician David Hartley (1705–57), Locke contributed significantly to the development of the theory of associationism, or associationist psychology, in the 18th century. Association has remained a central topic of inquiry in psychology ever since.

Having shown to his satisfaction that no idea requires for its explanation the hypothesis of innate ideas, Locke proceeds in Book III to examine the role of language in human mental life. His discussion is the first sustained philosophical inquiry in modern times into the notion of linguistic meaning. As elsewhere, he begins with rather simple and obvious claims but quickly proceeds to complex and contentious ones. Words , Locke says, stand for ideas in the mind of the person who uses them. It is by the use of words that people convey their necessarily private thoughts to each other. In addition, Locke insists, nothing exists except particulars, or individual things. There are, for example, many triangular things and many red things, but there is no general quality or property, over and above these things, that may be called “triangle” (“triangularity”) or “red” (“redness”) ( see universal ). Nevertheless, a large number of words are general in their application, applying to many particular things at once. Thus, words must be labels for both ideas of particular things (particular ideas) and ideas of general things (general ideas). The problem is, if everything that exists is a particular, where do general ideas come from?

Locke’s answer is that ideas become general through the process of abstraction. The general idea of a triangle, for example, is the result of abstracting from the properties of specific triangles only the residue of qualities that all triangles have in common—that is, having three straight sides. Although there are enormous problems with this account, alternatives to it are also fraught with difficulties.

In Book IV of the Essay , Locke reaches the putative heart of his inquiry, the nature and extent of human knowledge. His precise definition of knowledge entails that very few things actually count as such for him. In general, he excludes knowledge claims in which there is no evident connection or exclusion between the ideas of which the claim is composed. Thus, it is possible to know that white is not black whenever one has the ideas of white and black together (as when one looks at a printed page), and it is possible to know that the three angles of a triangle equal two right angles if one knows the relevant Euclidean proof. But it is not possible to know that the next stone one drops will fall downward or that the next glass of water one drinks will quench one’s thirst, even though psychologically one has every expectation, through the association of ideas, that it will. These are cases only of probability, not knowledge—as indeed is virtually the whole of scientific knowledge, excluding mathematics . Not that such probable claims are unimportant: humans would be incapable of dealing with the world except on the assumption that such claims are true. But for Locke they fall short of genuine knowledge.

There are, however, some very important things that can be known. For example, Locke agreed with Descartes that each person can know immediately and without appeal to any further evidence that he exists at the time that he considers it. One can also know immediately that the colour of the print on a page is different from the colour of the page itself—i.e., that black is not white—and that two is greater than one. It can also be proved from self-evident truths by valid argument (by an argument whose conclusion cannot be false if its premises are true) that a first cause , or God, must exist. Various moral claims also can be demonstrated—e.g., that parents have a duty to care for their children and that one should honour one’s contracts. People often make mistakes or poor judgments in their dealings with the world or each other because they are unclear about the concepts they use or because they fail to analyze the relevant ideas. Another great cause of confusion, however, is the human propensity to succumb to what Locke calls “Enthusiasm,” the adoption on logically inadequate grounds of claims that one is already disposed to accept.

One major problem that the Essay appeared to raise is that if ideas are indeed the immediate objects of experience, how is it possible to know that there is anything beyond them—e.g., ordinary physical objects? Locke’s answer to this problem, insofar as he recognized it as a problem, appears to have been that, because perception is a natural process and thus ordained by God, it cannot be generally misleading about the ontology of the universe. In the more skeptical age of the 18th century, this argument became less and less convincing. This issue dominated epistemology in the 18th century.

The Essay ’s influence was enormous, perhaps as great as that of any other philosophical work apart from those of Plato and Aristotle . Its importance in the English-speaking world of the 18th century can scarcely be overstated. Along with the works of Descartes, it constitutes the foundation of modern Western philosophy .

Complete Guide to John Locke Essay Competition

What will be covered in the article?

1. what is the john locke essay competition.

The John Locke Essay Competition is organized by John Locke Institute, an independent education organization located in Oxford, UK. Professors at the John Locke Institute are from famous universities like Oxford, Princeton, Brown, and Buckingham University.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics of great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis, and persuasive style. Students are challenged to explore a wide range of questions beyond their school’s curriculum.

Obtaining prizes in the competition can greatly enhance the competitiveness of undergraduate applications at American, Canadian, and British universities. College admission for students in previous years includes Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Oxford, Cambridge, University of Toronto, and other world-renowned schools.

Students from all countries and schools can participate. There are two levels of the competition, one for high school students from 15 to 18 years old and the Junior Prize, focused on middle school students 14 years old and younger.

2. What are the topics discussed in the competition?

Students are required to submit an argumentative essay of fewer than 2000 words. The overarching themes of the competitions are: philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology, and law.

For 2022, the questions for John Locke Essay Competition are:

Philosophy

Q1. How likely is the multiverse? Would it change anything if (somehow) we came to know the theory was true?

Q2. If our actions are a consequence of our capacities and preferences, and if those things are, in turn, a result of our genetic inheritance and the external world in which we happen to find ourselves, are we ultimately responsible for our choices?

Q3. Is it moral to take money from people through the force of law in order to pay philosophers to philosophize?

Q4. When, if ever, can acts involving only consenting adults be morally wrong?

Q1. Should we allow political donations?

Q2. What, if anything, do rich nations owe poor nations?

Q3. Is there such a thing as a common good?

Q4. Is the good citizen always a good person? Is the good person always a good citizen?

Economics

Q1. Is Bitcoin a blessing or a curse?

Q2. What’s wrong with the housing market? How can we fix it?

Q3. Should Amazon pay people more? What would happen if they immediately increased every worker’s salary by twenty percent?

Q4. Is Henry George’s land value tax fair, efficient, both, or neither?

Q1. Was there anything good about the British empire?

Q2. Is China an imperial power?

Q3. Is Western civilization in decline?

Q4. Do leaders make events or do events make leaders?

Psychology

Q1. Are we getting nastier?

Q2. Are men and women psychologically different? Does it matter?

Q3. Is there any mental illness that isn’t ultimately physical?

Q4. Does it make sense to hate someone for his or her opinions?

Q1. Why would God be so coy?

Q2. “The God of the Bible and the Koran is a primitive human’s idea of a great being… But that is not what an actual supreme being would be like.” Is there a holy book that manifests divine authorship?

Q3. “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” Can one be a Christian without believing in the miraculous resurrection of Jesus?

Q4. Is faith anything other than uncertain belief on incomplete evidence?

Q1. Does prison work?

Q2. “People who serve on juries are ill-informed, prejudiced, and not clever enough to avoid jury service.” Should we abolish Trial by Jury?

Q3. Should “hate crime” be punished more severely than the same crime with different motives?

Q4. What is the relationship between justice and law?

JUNIOR prize (for age 14 and younger)

Q1. Which existential threat are humans underestimating?

Q2. What should the age of consent be for irreversible sex reassignment surgery?

Q3. Were the lockdowns worth it?

Q4. What does it mean for people to be equal?

Q5. What would happen if there were a one hundred percent inheritance tax?

Q6. If you could travel by time machine for your next holiday, which time and place would you visit? What preparations would you make for your journey? What challenges would you face in the first twenty-four hours, and how would you handle them?

Q7. Should some things be legal to give away but illegal to sell?

For Question 7 we recommend you read Markets Without Limits: Moral Virtues and Commercial Interests by Jason Brennan and Peter Jaworski and Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale by Debra Satz.

3. What abilities of students are examined through the John Locke Essay Competition?

4. What’s the general structure of the argumentative essay?

An argumentative essay is different compared to other types, because it requires a straightforward and easy-to-follow structure, with a clear point of view and reasoning. We will use an example of an essay from 2020 achieving the First Prize in the Junior Category from the John Locke Essay Competition. The prompt for that year was “Who should own your data? The companies with which you agree to share your data, everybody, just you, or nobody?” The link to the essay can be viewed here .

A good argumentative essay should follow this structure:

Introductory paragraph:

This paragraph should outline the topic of discussion with background information related to your argument.

Today, we produce unfathomable amounts of data, leading the OECD to call data a “key pillar of 21st-century growth.”[1] Legislators, politicians and the popular press have increasingly called for ownership of data.[2]

Outline the topic of discussion and background information about the state of data ownership.

Ownership is generally defined as “full and complete control with recognised legal rights,” with legal discretion for the rightsholder to exploit, change, destroy, possess, exclude others from and transfer their property.[3] An ownership right for personal data does not currently exist in the legal statutes of any industrialised country.[4] Property laws intentionally exclude personal data from subject matter definitions and newly introduced regulatory frameworks do not specify data ownership.[5] [6]

Define the subject matter at a high level. In this paragraph, the writer discusses the definition of ownership and the problem of data ownership not specified in the ownership regulation.

The thesis statement:

This is where students should state their thesis, along with the evidence they will present. The thesis statement should be a concise summary of your main point and introduce the main arguments that will be discussed in the body paragraphs.

In 1893, Sir William Blackstone noted the human fascination with ownership, saying we desire “sole and despotic dominion … in total exclusion of rights of other individuals in the universe.”[7] In this case, that fascination detracts from the problems and solutions surrounding personal data today. An ownership right should not be created for data. To illustrate this, I shall explore the implications of assigning a data ownership right to corporations, everybody, individuals and then discuss why data should not be owned at all.

State your perspective on the matter and provide the first piece of evidence for the argument. In responding to who should own the data, the writer stated that data should not be owned by corporations, individuals, and everybody, which he discussed later in the body paragraph.

Body paragraph:

A body paragraph explains the main reasons for your thesis. If you have three main points you want to discuss, each body paragraph should cover each one and only one idea. You can support your claims with examples, research, studies, statistics, and any other information to add credibility and gain trust from readers. In the body paragraphs, you can also bring up opposing claims and provide explanations on why you disagree with the claims. The overall idea of the argument is to convey your idea, explain why the reader should agree, and present opposing claims with evidence-based arguments.

In the winner’s essay, he provided four main arguments why data should not be owned by corporations, individuals, and everybody, as well we why data should be owned by nobody. He also discussed the consequences of data ownership by these groups.

Conclusion:

The conclusion should summarize your arguments and restate your thesis. A good conclusion is always hard to write, a good starting point is to make your conclusion personal is including an anecdote or a personal story related to the topic.

Today, policy makers must strike a balance between individual rights and extracting societal benefits of data. It is the subject of age-old philosophical debate; whether to prioritise a categorical imperative of privacy at the expense of utilitarian societal progress. Assigning data ownership to a single party means choosing a side, one side will inevitably lose out – sacrificing progress or privacy. Thankfully, reality does not reflect this simplistic trade-off. Ergo, legislators must continue to push for a sector-specific rights-based regulatory framework to complement existing efforts and forgo the need to legislate through assigning data ownership. Therefore, I believe, data should remain as is, res nullius – “property of no one.”

This is an example of a great conclusion, as the writer restates what would happen if you provide data ownership to people, and restates his original thesis that data should not be owned by anyone.

5. What are the prizes of the John Locke Essay Competition?

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Aralia’s tutors are inspired teachers and professors who are committed to student success. They are recognized in their field or are currently teaching at top high schools and colleges/universities in the US.

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Essays on John Locke

You're John Locke essay will tell a story of a remarkable English XVII century philosopher, educator, political writer, and liberalist. Authors of John Locke essays explore Locke's philosophical doctrine, which embodied the main features of modern philosophy: opposition to scholasticism, practical use of knowledge. Essays on John Locke note that philosophy is oriented towards humans and their life. He believed that the purpose of philosophy in the development of means for a person to achieve happiness. Locke established a sensory-based method of learning – empiricism. Our John Locke essay samples have an abundance of facts about this philosopher – you can check them out in our essay samples below!

Personal identity, according to John Locke, is a component of what a person stands for. It is made up of a rational and reflective intelligent being who sees himself as himself. It’s a question of psychological consistency. Conscious thinking, which is essential in perceiving what is around them, must include…

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I agree that this is a list of rights for all citizens Living Right Land right Freedom right Right to freedom and autonomy Privacy privileges Innocence right unless otherwise proved Right to a fair decision Don’t be pushed into slavery Education correct Freedom to play and recreate Claim to equal…

Hobbes’ Social Contract Philosophy serves a dual duty; in one sense, it provides a political theory that shows the nature of authority, and in the other, it reveals a philosophical theory that justifies moral commitment as human beings. From a philosophical point of view, Hobbes’ Social Contract Philosophy affirms that…

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John Locke Essays

John Locke Essays (Examples)

287 results for “John Locke” .

John Locke Rawls a Theory

Thirdly, Rawls thinks that one would not choose the principle of average utility from the original position, because of equality that is given by the original position. The original position holds that justice in an ideal society should be guided by the principle opted by everyone if they were in the original position of equality. The equality in this regard refers to the rights and duties of all rational individuals. This would allow the individuals enjoy the equal basic rights and liberties; thus, they would opt for this position. Question 3 Pure procedural justice differs from other forms of Justice in significant ways. Pure procedural justice involves the fairness given to an individual, without any compromise on the established processes of justice. In this regard, it involves the justice given to an individual by procedure. In other words, there is no formula in judging how just is reached, but by…

John Locke 'Second Treatise of

According to Locke man is born with a natural liberty that means he should be free from subordination to any "superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule." (1632-1704) Man's liberty in society is such that should not be ruled by a legislative power but instead "by consent, in the commonwealth…what the legislative shall enact, according to the trust put in it." (Locke, 1632-1704) Freedom from power that is "absolute, arbitrary" is deemed by Locke to be required and "closely joined with a man's preservation, that he cannot part with it, but by what forfeits his preservation and life together" and that man is not to become a slave through his own consent or the power of others. (1632-1704) According to Locke, God gave the world to all men and because…

Locke, J. (1632-1704) Two Treatises of Government in the former "The False Principles and Foundations of Sir Robert Filmer and His Followers are Detected and Overthrown. Retrieved from: http://www.citizensource.com/History/PreRevolution/SecondTreatise.PDF

Winthrop, J. (1630) a Model of Christian Charity. Composed aboard the ship Arbella, en route to the New World. Retrieved from: http://www.citizensource.com/History/PreRevolution/Charity.htm

John Locke and Two Treatises of Government

John Locke and Two Treatises of Government Locke's Conception of the State of Nature vs. The State of War In "Two Treatises of Government" Locke strives to present the notion that a government grounded in the consent of the populace does not necessarily "lay a foundation for perpetual disorder and mischief, Tumult, Sedition and ebellion"(Book II, Chapter I, Sec.25). Locke suggests all of mankind operates on the Law of Nature, within which reason prevails. This Natural Law dictates that all people are equal and independent, and an individual must never harm another in his "life, health, liberty or possessions" (Book II, Ch.II, Sec.6). Natural Law wills the peace and preservation of mankind, and, in essence, is justice. Locke argues that all people exist in a State of Nature under the influence of Natural Law. This implies that the natural state of mankind is one of freedom. All people are free…

Locke, John. "Two Treatises of Government," ed. Peter Laslett (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1960; reprint 1963).

John Locke Was Born in

On the other hand, he suggested that the executive branch was responsible for insuring that the laws are actually obeyed and that it should operate continuously in society. His idea of a legislative body was one of a representative assembly, which would retain and exercise supreme power whenever it assembled. Its members would speak jointly for all people in that society. The executive and federative functions derived wholly from the legislative branch. In emergency situations when the legislature could not convene, the executive branch should exercise its prerogatives, although there could be abuses to such prerogatives. Locke perceived that abuse of power would unduly interfere with the property interests of the governed, who could then protect themselves by withdrawing their consent. This could be in the form of rebellion or revolution, with the end-view of restoring their fundamental rights. Since the existence of civil order or social contract rests on…

Bibliography

1. Kemerling, Garth. Locke: Social Order. Political Theory: Philosophy Pages, 2002. http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/4n.htm

2. Loflin, L. John Locke on Reason and Faith, 2002. http://www.sullivan-county.com/idlocke_reason.htm

3. Microsoft Encarta. John Locke. Online Encyclopedia: Microsoft Corporation, 2006. http://Encarta.msn.com/text_761564503_0/John_Locke.html

4. Uzgalis, William. John Locke. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2001. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke

John Locke Are Found in the Declaration

John Locke are found in the "Declaration of Independence"? Three values John Locke discussed in his 1690 "Two Treatises of Government" are echoed in the wording of the "Declaration of Independence" of the American colonies, when they wrote their famous letter to George III of England. These were the rights of all human beings to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. Locke stated that no human being, even when he or she agreed to the social contract implicit in the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, could be deprived of these three rights. Such rights were eternally part of the human condition. The temporary forfeiture of these rights to a sovereign government was only done by the voluntary will of the people of a nation -- a will that could be withdrawn. Locke argued that to deprive a human being of their right to life was wrong. For…

John Locke's Understanding of Freedom and Equality

John Locke's understanding of freedom and equality is the essential basis of any happy and prosperous society." How would the following individuals react to this quote: ousseau, King Louis the Fourteenth, and Napoleon ousseau ousseau is most famous for saying that "Man was/is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." (Social Contract, Vol. IV, p. 131 in Ashcraft, 22). We are born good but are essentially not free since we are forced to live in a pretentious society with conventions and masquerade. The most liberated and content people, according to ousseau, were primitive people since they had no manmade convictions and social niceties to bind them. Locke's account of the social republic was one of people freely choosing to segregate in bands and create rules for their protection. These obligations are willingly entered into and represent bonds of natural law where people choose a ruler to impose and maintain…

Ashcraft, Richard, Revolutionary Politics and Locke's Two Treatises of Civil Government, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1986.

Gourevitch, Victor. Rousseau: The 'Social Contract' and Other Later Political Writings. Cambridge UP, 1997.

Napoleon Bonaparte:Leader, General, Tyrant, Reformer

http://mrksmodernworld.pbworks.com/f/napoleon+leader+general+tyrant+reformer.pdf

Knowledge Bu John Locke

Locke PRIMARY AND SECONDARY QUALITIES ohn Locke believed that every object has primary and secondary qualities. In other words, he maintained that every object consisted of primary and secondary attributes, which are important to develop the final idea of the object. Primary qualities to him were attributes such as shape, seize, movement etc. Of the object, which remains static, regardless of who the perceiver is and how good or bad the circumstances or conditions are. In other words, primary qualities are independent of the perceiver and his way of perceiving the object and they remain the same for every observer. On the other hand secondary qualities were attributes such as color, and those things that we get from the object including the feelings we derive etc. Primary qualities are thus "Those qualities of an object in the external world which are thought to be characteristic of the object as it…

Jeff Strayer, Introduction to Philosophy:

http://www.ipfw.edu/phil/faculty/Strayer/qualities.PDF.

Louis P. Pojman, The Quest For Truth Fifth edition

Human Understanding John Locke's Work

'" Yolton follows that with what he believes Locke really meant; "The mental content of any act of awareness or thought" is an "idea" to Locke. But as to the primary qualities, on page 130, Yolton breaks Locke's concept of an object into five "propositions." One, objects "have primary qualities non-relationally"; two, objects are observed "or perceived" to have both primary and secondary qualities"; three, the qualities that one can observe to be "dependent upon other objects" are both "perceivers and other bodies"; four, ideas of primary qualities and primary qualities themselves are connected by the same "relation of resemblance"; and five, "the causation of the perception of all qualities is the behaviour of insensible particles on our sense organs." Meanwhile, it is the belief of this writer that Locke is justified in drawing distinctions between primary and secondary qualities, no matter that scholars and philosophy students may haggle over…

Works Cited

Jackson, Reginald. "Locke's Distinction between Primary and Secondary Qualities." Mind

Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. New York: Dutton, 1947

Spellman, W.M. "The Christian Estimate of Man in Locke's 'Essay.'" the Journal of Religion.

Yolton, John W. Locke and the Compass of Human Understanding: A Selective Commentary

Philosophy - John Locke the

..you will find his portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, but demand is insufficient for a postcard to be on sale" (Goldie, 2004). But today Locke's writings are used by a diverse assortment of organizations to bolster or justify their positions. The National ifle Association (NA) (www.nra.org) uses the 137th paragraph of Locke's Second Treatise on Government as an authoritative source to bolster the NA's position on the right to bear arms. "Whereas by supposing they have given up themselves to the absolute arbitrary power and will of a legislator, they have disarmed themselves, and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases," Locke wrote. The John Locke Foundation (http://www.johnlocke.org),a think-tank in North Carolina, uses their perceptions of Locke's philosophy to promote a conservative agenda; for example, the group is opposed to the "costly, immoral, and destructive welfare state," and is against "government corruption and wasteful spending."…

Law School Law Library. "John Locke: Chapter II of the State of Nature." Accessed 12 February 2005. Accessed at http://www.4lawschool.com/lib/locke2.htm .

Goldie, Mark. "John Locke: icon of liberty." History Today 54.10 (2004): 31-37.

Institute for Learning Technologies. "John Locke: Two Treatises on Civil Government.." Accessed 13 Feb. 2005. Available at http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/locke/bio_JL.html.

Jayne, Allen. "Jefferson's Philosophical Wall of Separation." The Humanist 59.1 (1999):

Criminal Justice - John Locke

Therefore, the people always maintain the (natural) right to overthrow any state authority that fails to act in the best interest of the people or that excuses itself from respecting the natural rights of the populace (Taylor, 1999). The fundamental principles underlying Locke's theory of social contract and civil government are that (1) the primary purpose of state legislative authority is to ensure the protection of the natural rights of everyone in society and (2) the failure of holders of state judicial, legislative, and executive authority to uphold the obligations granted to them under social contracts is an outright breach of those contracts, justifying their recession, and the overthrow of unjust state authority, such as witnessed in England in 1688 (Taylor, 1999). Parallels to Contemporary American Justice: The most obvious parallels between Locke's theory of social contract and contemporary concepts of American justice is evidenced by Locke's articulation of natural…

Friedman, L.M. (2005). A History of American Law 3rd Edition. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Kluger, J. (2007). What Makes Us Moral? Time Magazine; Vol. 170 No. 23, Dec. 3/07 (pp. 54-60)

Schmalleger, F. (2008) Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century. New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Taylor, R. (1999). Freedom, Anarchy, and the Law: An Introduction to Political Philosophy. Buffalo: Prometheus.

John Locke Circumscribing Material Items

If he also bartered away plums that would have rotted in a week, for nuts that would last good for his eating a whole year, he did no injury; he wasted not the common stock; destroyed no part of the portion of goods that belonged to others, so long as nothing perished uselessly in his hands (Locke, 1689). This quotation indicates that the author believes that a technique such as bartering (which has obvious pecuniary implications) allows one to do "no injury," and that unless one utilizes such pecuniary means to extend the life of perishable goods (referred to as "plums" in this quotation) those who take more of such goods than they can use have "destroyed" such necessities that could have been used by others. Therefore, because the government is the primary entity that creates and utilizes currency that can be exchanged for non-durable items, and which then effectively…

Locke, J. (1689). Two Treatises of Government. Retrieved from http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/locke/

John Locke A Brief Biography

With this example, it is not surprising that John Locke is considered an instrument for the right political cause. Aside from the essays that he had written, Locke also has philosophies in the different subjects of life. This includes the role of families in the liberal society, theories on properties and money, ethics and beliefs, and many others. Locke's contribution to his generation and the modern society focused on the role of the government and the people to each other. Despite of the changing course of politics in the seventeenth century, Locke was able to also shift his intellect effectively. The various political situations that happened in his time had been useful to the future generation because from his works, the contemporary times has gained basis and reference for the ideologies they fight for which are related to Locke's philosophies and writings. As Tim Harris indicated, in his article John…

Goldie, M. 2004. John Locke Icon of Liberty.

History Today, vol 54 issue 10, pp 31-36.

Jhunjhunwala, B. 2004. Role of Intellectuals in Governance.

Adams Business Media, Vol 36 Issue 6-7, pp 787-795.

John Locke Political Thought on

S. Constitution as offering much protection but instead view it as being the responsibility of the states to provide protection for private property owners. In the event that the courts "...continue to abdicate their role as the protector of individuals rights, then big government and powerful corporations will continue to run roughshod over the property interest of small landowners." (Liles, 2006, p.372) Liles holds that the legislature being allowed a leeway that is so constitutionally broad in defining the protections afforded to private property effectively "...defies the necessary checks and balances implicit in our system of government." (p.372) Part of the problem appears to be that the definition applied to 'public use' has become quite lenient over the years and while it in the beginning meant that "the public must own property" it now has been construed to mean that "private parties can own the land so long as the…

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Restoring Our Heritage of Property Rights (2006) Mackenzie Center for Public Policy. Online available at: http://www.mackinac.org/archives/2006/heritage.pdf

Hansen, David (2007) Kelo v. New London: Economics and Ethics. 2007. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte North Carolina. Online available at: http://econ.duke.edu/dje/2007_Symp/Hansen.pdf

Liles, Brett D. (2007) Reconsidering Poletown: In the Wake of Kelo, States Should Move to Restore Private Property Rights. Arizona Law Review. Vol. 48:369. Online available at: https://www.law.arizona.edu/Journals/ALR/ALR2006/vol482/Liles.pdf

Kelo, et. Al v. City of New London, Connecticut, et al. In the Supreme Court of the United States. No. 04-108. Washington DC 22 Feb 2005. Online available at: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/04-108.pdf

John Locke Believes That the

Locke's version of the social contract is essentially a justification for the wealthy to assert political control over everyone else. Locke's arguments justifying government were liberal, even radical for their time. The popular view was that kings ruled by mandate from God, and were not subject to the consent of the people. Locke's Two Treatises of Government were written during the exclusion crisis, and supported the hig position that the king did not have an absolute right to rule. (Rj) During the exclusion crisis, king Charles had no hier, making his brother James the next in line for the throne. James was a Catholic, which made him very unpopular in protestant England. Parliament repeatedly tried to pass bills excluding James from succession to the throne. Each time, Charles dissolved parliament before the bill could be passed. (Ellywa) Locke's version of social contract theory provides a justification for citizens rejecting Charles's…

Ellywa "Exclusion Bill" Wikipedia. 8, Jan 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusion_crisis

Gregmcpherson "Social Contract" Wikipedia. 26, Mar 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Contract

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/trgov10.txt

Marx, Karl. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Feb 1848 http://wikisource.org/wiki/Manifesto_of_the_Communist_Party

John Locke Was the Type

Locke combined the rational, deductive theory of Rene Descartes and the inductive, scientific experimentalism of Francis Bacon and the Royal Society. He gave the estern world the first modern theory of human nature and a new synthesis of the individualistic concept if liberty and the theory of government that was emerging out of the debates over natural law." (Locke 2003) look at Locke's early life shows why his thinking was so well rounded. He first was trained in an area of study that would have led him to become a 'man of the cloth' but instead of choosing that direction he turned to medicine as a field of study. Eventually he was granted the right to practice medicine, and did so, but also began to study in his quest to become a member of the Royal Society. Much of his training had to do with the manner of mankind's attempts…

Hollis III, Daniel W. (2006) Biblical Politics of John Locke, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. 18, Issue 1, pp 205-207

Langley, Raymond J. (1998) Locke, John 1632-1704, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Bourgoin, Suzanne M. (ed), 2nd Ed. Detroit: Gale Research, http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&contentset-GBRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodld=SRC -, Accessed February 17, 2007

Locke, John 1632-1704 (2003) Discovering Biography. Online ed. Detroit: Gale

http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=SRC-3&docId=EJ2102101121&source=gale&srcprod=SRCS&userGroupName=salt82334&version=1.0 , Accessed February 17, 2007

John Locke 1632-1704 English Philosopher

These rights are voluntarily given by the people to the government through a 'social contract' and governments exist only to protect such rights. How Far is Locke's "Theory of Property" reflected in the U.S. Declaration of Independence? The Declaration of Independence," a formal announcement of independence by the American colonists from British rule in the summer of 1776, is widely believed to be based on John Locke's theories of natural and property rights as well as the right (even obligation) of the people to rebel against a government that fails to honor the 'contract' between rulers and the ruled by failing to protect the rights of the people. There is no doubt that Thomas Jefferson, the main author of the "Declaration of Independence" was deeply influenced by the Libertarian philosophy of John Locke and the wordings of the Declaration parallel the writings of Locke regarding "the inalienable rights of life,…

John Locke Employment -- the Morality of

John Locke Employment -- the Morality of the Contract between Employee and Employer Before entering into a contract for employment, an employees' first concern is usually to gain a living wage, then to gain experience in a particular profession, and perhaps finally to gain advancement within a particular corporate structure, industry, or trade. An employer's main concern in hiring an employee is usually if the employee can perform the job the employee is being hired to perform, if he or she will be deserving of the wage he or she is will be paid, and if he or she will stay for the necessary hours and period of time. However, once the employee has made a commitment to work and the employer has made a commitment to pay the employee for a period of time, the relationship and ratio of obligations invariably grows murkier. hat obligation does the employer have…

Franklin, Benjamin "From the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" Retrieved on April 5, 2005 at http://www.wwnorton.com/secure/tindall/ch3/resources/documents/franklin.htm .

Franklin, Benjamin. "Benjamin Franklin, How I became a printer in Philadelphia" http://www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/texts/franklin_how.html

Locke, John. "Two Treatises of Government" (1690) Retrieved on April 5, 2005 at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1690locke-sel.html .

Winthrop, John "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630) Retrieved on April 5, 2005 at http://history.hanover.edu/texts/winthmod.html .

John Locke an Open Letter

And because you breached the conditions set in this social contract, we are now taking full ownership, once again, of our liberties and properties that we had entrusted you. This condition of civil society was illustrated concretely in Treatise, and if you do not recall Locke's reminders on this, let me help you recall his wisdom: "...but whenever his property is invaded by the will and order of his monarch, he has not only no appeal, as those in society ought to have, but, as if he were degraded from the common state of rational creatures, is denied a liberty to judge of, or defend his right, and so is exposed to all the misery and inconveniencies that a man can fear from one..." This is the state we are in at the moment. New Orleans is in a state of strife, as we, the citizenry find ourselves in conflict…

John Locke Biographical Research During the

He continued to study medicine with Thomas Sydenham as his mentor. (ikipedia) He had an unsuccessful attempt to prevent James II from reaching the throne, and, as a result of his failure, he had been obliged to flee England. He did not return to England until 1689, when James II had been removed from power. It only took one year until he published his most important work: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. He had been inspired from the works of Decartes when he wrote the essay. Locke also paid great interest to politics, which motivated him in writing the Two Treatises of Government. His work related to the fact that the state has to protect the rights that its citizens have, including the right to property. The fact that he considered the people to be more important than the state and that freedom of religion was vital in order for…

Works cited:

1. (2008). "John Locke." Retrieved May 23, 2009, from The European Graduate School Web site: http://www.egs.edu/resources/locke.html

2. (2009). "John Locke." Retrieved May 23, 2009, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke

John Locke vs Baron De Montesquieu Ideas

John Locke vs. Baron de Montesquieu: Ideas on Government. Locke and de Montesquieu possessed remarkable differing views on government and what exact role government should take. For Locke, government needed to possess a clear and strong moral role, so that each citizen could give up his or her power in the name of bestowing that power to one single designated body. Essentially these community members give up some of their innate rights in the name of one government which is better versed at securing and protecting those rights than one single man alone. Government is a creation of the people which is developed for the greater good of the community: this means that because government is not this organic entity, it can be eradicated and replaced if it's not fulfilling its function. In that sense, many historians view Locke as making an important contribution to political thought by essentially defending…

Bok, H. (2010, January 20). Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. Retrieved from Stanford.edu: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/#4.1

Tuckness, A. (2005, December 10). Locke's Political Philosophy. Retrieved from Stanford.edu:

John Locke There Is One

Locke's theory concerning the way a person learns about the world in which she or he lives is supported and reinforced by many of today's studies in psychology. Locke believed that "there was no such thing as innate ideas which we are born with and which come into action as we mediate on them, which had previously been the classic understanding of how a person came to know their world (www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/locke2.htm)." Modern psychologists can interpret Locke's theory of knowledge to imply that "ideas arise from external stimuli -- not from sources internal to the human mind (www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/locke2.htm)." Conclusion Although John Locke lived during the 17th century, his theory of knowledge is still utilized by many modern psychologists today. eferences John Locke. (accessed 23 February 2005). www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/locke2.htm).

John Locke. (accessed 23 February 2005). www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/locke2.htm).

Martin Luther vs John Locke

He argued that forgiveness could not be bought with money, and that it could only come as a result of the relationship between God and the sinner. His writings were very controversial, and because he did not want to obey Pope Leo X and retract them, he was excommunicated and condemned as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. I believe that Martin Luther had a more profound impact on world history because the Protestant Reformation opposed the corruption that had taken over the Catholic Church. Luther taught that salvation comes from God, and that only through faith can a sinner be redeemed, and also narrowed down the number of sacraments. Moreover, he translated the Bible to German which made it more accessible to the common people who did not speak Latin which in turn contributed to the development of a standard version of the…

Substance According to John Locke John Locke

Substance According to John Locke John Locke along with the likes of Berkley and Hume was a British Empiricist. He was of the theory that all knowledge was based on sensory experience of some sort and in his "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1690) he attempted to try to explain the basis of his theory in detail. Complications arose because Locke's logically derived and systematic conclusions could not fit a solely material and objective mold in which he tried to fit knowledge. In the era when scientific advances and evidence-based knowledge was coming to the fore Locke investigated methodically the basic materials and human acquisitions of them to produce knowledge or ideas. It was when he inevitable entered the realm of feeling, spirituality, and the improvable that his epistemological theory started showing signs of hole. When it came to defining 'substance' he confused and contradicted himself because he could neither…

1. Locke J. 1974. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (abridged), in The Empiricists. New York: Anchor Books.

2. Randall AF.1997.The Inconsistency of Substance in the Metaphysics of John Locke [online] Allan Randall. [Available at]: http://home.ican.net/~arandall/Locke

Dialogue Between People Like John Locke Karl Marx Mohandas Gandhi Elizabeth Wolgast Dorothy Day

Colleen -- but then again, when you're dealing with food services, every day's a long day. As she made her way toward the stairs and away from the brooding purgatory that is the HUB (name of cafeteria), shutting off the lights behind her like a row of fluorescent dominoes, the clock on the wall read "10:45." The sound of the door shutting at the top of the stairwell signaled the end of another day at the HUB. Actually, perhaps this was not true. Just as the door was shutting above, the lights down below flickered on once again to reveal a ghostly line of customers stretching from the "Pizza Hut" station to the cash register. Near the end of the line, Mohandas Gandhi stood with a cup of tea and a veggie wrap balanced on his tray. Martin Luther King stood next to him, his tray empty except for a…

Response on John Locke in

" This is certainly much in line with our current democratic system in the United States which exists solely to guarantee that all men and women are free individuals and have the God-given right to live their lives as they see fit. This passage is also very interesting, due to perhaps serving as part of the Founding Fathers' inspiration to set up a democratic system free from the tyranny of Great Britain which resulted in the creation of America after the Revolutionary War of 1776. Obviously, in the eyes of someone like King George III, this passage would be quite controversial, for Locke is suggesting that all men must be free from the control of others who see themselves as superior, in this case the British monarchy. Personally, this passage is very inspiring and demonstrates that every political society and/or government must work continuously towards guaranteeing the freedom of its…

Ethics John Locke Favored the

In Marx's view, equality extends in terms of distribution, where there is no private ownership, but where the government manages all goods for the supposed good of all citizens. Hence, equality extends not in terms of power, but in terms of material goods, which is managed by a centralized government. Hence, the bailout plan is ideal, with the government taking possession of the company and allowing its former owners to manage it in a way that is beneficial for its survival and the employees who depend on it for their survival. I believe that the bailout should have been done. Like many other companies, GM was in financial trouble. Since the government was in a position to provide assistance, it is right that they should have done so. However, I tend to be in agreement with Locke and Smith that the government should not have taken permanent ownership of any…

Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

Second Treatise of Government," by John Locke is a revolutionary philosophical work that directly opposed the idea of absolutism. Absolutism held that the best form of government was autocratic, and was based on both the belief in the Divine Right of Kings and the theory of natural law, as espoused by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan. In the context of the absolutism of Louis XIV, and the political events surrounding Oliver Cromwell, Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" was clearly a revolutionary work on the structure and purpose of political authority. One of the greatest debates of the 16th and 17th centuries was over the nature of political authority. The belief in divine right of kings that had once held sway over the estern world was quickly dissolving. In its place was a rapidly emerging idea of individualism that took form with the Renaissance and the French Revolution, and took root in…

Hobbes, T. The Leviathan. Chapters XIII - XXI. Reproduced at: The History of Western Philosophy from 1492 to 1776, William Uzgalis, Oregon State University. 15 October 2002. http://www.orst.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html

Locke, J. The Second Treatise of Civil Government. Chapters 2-8. Reproduced at: The History of Western Philosophy from 1492 to 1776, William Uzgalis, Oregon State University. 15 October 2002. http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke2/2nd-contents.html

Locke or Berkeley

Locke v. Berkeley The philosophers John Locke and George Berkeley offer stark contrasts on the issue of various matters. Locke's whose viewpoint can best be classified as based in relativism. He believed that all knowledge come from the senses. As every man's senses are unique, no two individuals will sense the same experience the same and, therefore, all knowledge is different in each individual. By extension, there is no such thing as better beliefs or true beliefs. Everyone's beliefs are their own and based on their individual experience. George Berkeley's viewpoints offer a sharp contrast to those of Locke. In fact, their individual careers ran concurrently and they spent most of that time being contrasted and possessing viewpoints that were diametrically opposed. Berkeley's was an empiricist but one who also possessed a certain idealist twist. Berkeley viewed experience as the source of most knowledge. According to Berkeley's form of empiricism,…

Locke The Natural Liberty of

As for knowledge, Locke believed that "the best and surest way to get clear and distinct knowledge is through examining and judging ideas by themselves" (Locke, 1997, VI: I). The Family -- Locke lived in a time in which the family was patriarchal and central to the argument of the opponents to limited government. In early-modern England the family structure was more authoritarian, intolerant, and sexist. Locke's political theory had revolutionary implications that could easily be exported to governments, and as an individualist, it is easy to see why Locke would look upon inequality and mindless subjugation as unproductive and antithetical. In this the natural rights family was radical in the sense that it held that everyone born was capable of actualization. The family was a microcosm of government, and also served as a way to train individuals into their roles and responsibilities within society (Ward, 2010, pp. 136-42). Private…

Baird, F. And Kaufman, W. (2007). Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida.

New York: Prentice Hall.

Locke, J. (2003). Two Treatises of Government. Ed. Ian Shapiro. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Locke, J., R. Woodhouse, ed. (1997). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. New York: Penguin Books.

Locke One of the Single

This body then has the right and duty, especially if elected to represent to build the laws and enforce the judgment of those laws, as a reflection of the will of the consensus. Locke, having developed a keen sense of a rather radical sense of the rights of the individual and the responsibility of the civil government began his work with the development of what it is that constructs the "natural rights" of man. Locke, therefore begins his Second Treatise on the natural rights of man, as he puts it to illuminate the understanding of the right to rule. Natural Rights Theory Locke demonstrates in the beginning of his Second Treatise the idea that the government created by the people can only be so if the people accept that certain rights of nature are true to all men. The development of these rights is not necessary as they are natural…

Arneil, Barbara. John Locke and America: The Defence of English Colonialism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Brown, Gillian. The Consent of the Governed: The Lockean Legacy in Early American Culture. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press. 2001.

Dunn, John. The Political Thought of John Locke: An Historical Account of the Argument of the 'Two Treatises of Government' London: Cambridge

Univ. Press, 2006.

Locke's Second Treatise of Government

In addition, other just men may join in the attempt to destroy the unjust, while those on the unjust side -- who will not think of themselves as unjust and therefore will see that they have every right to defend themselves -- will then attempt to destroy their destroyers, as under the law of nature they have the right to defend themselves from destruction. Thus, men on both sides of the issue will feel as though they are acting righteously according to the law of nature in attempting to destroy everyone on the other side of the issue, because "when all cannot be preserved, the safety of the innocent is to be preferred," and both sides will consider themselves to be the innocents that were wronged by the other side (Locke, 14). This state is what Locke means by the "state of war," and is one of the reasons governments…

Locke v Hobbes the Political

Basically, Hobbes takes a long historical view of human society, and sees the continuation of civil societies -- i.e. those organized under governments -- as the prime necessity for any progress. Left in the state of nature, mankind could not be guaranteed the continued success of any long-term projects, and therefore would not desire to undertake them. Also, without the rule of law, many men would not feel any need for government. The statement of Hobbes' quoted above indicates that he believes the state of nature is a state of rule by force, where the strong are able to take what they want from the weak with utter impunity. Such a horrific view of humanity could cause many intellectual hackles to rise -- indeed, Hobbes' description of the state of nature has been dismissed as unduly pessimistic by many critics -- but Hobbes was not hasty in drawing such conclusions.…

Anonymous. "John Locke." The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006. Accessed 17 April 2009. http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/locke.htm

Finn, Stephen. "Thomas Hobbes: Methodology." The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2008. Accessed 17 April 2009. http://www.iep.utm.edu/h/hobmeth.htm

Lloyd, Sharon A. And Sreedhar, Susanne. "Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2008. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes-moral/#MajPolWri

Moseley, Alexander. "The Political Philosophy of John Locke." The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2007. Accessed 17 April 2009.

Locke and Property Locke's Second

" Money can only be hoarded because it has no real use; it will not feed or cloth someone who is starving or cold. This implies that things like food and clothing, which have obvious and immediate intrinsic values, cannot be rightfully hoarded in most societies because this will cause injury to someone else. This places a severe limit on the power of money in Locke's construct; though it is deemed acceptable to hoard any amount of gold and silver, and though this gold and silver can be used to purchase things of real value like land and other property, it is not acceptable to maintain control of vast amounts of this property at the expense of others. A lord may own the land, therefore, but only because men have agreed on the value of the money that the land was purchased with, and only as long as the landowner…

Locke, John. The Second Treatise of Civil Government. 1690. Accessed 12 July 2009. http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtreat.htm

John Locke. The Second Treatise of Civil Government, Ch. V, sec. 50. 1690. Accessed 12 July 2009.

Locke the Ironies of Philosophy

Others might allege that Mugabe has held elections, unlike John Locke's legitimate sovereign. But the presence of elections does not necessarily guarantee the existence of a good and fair representative government, or even the existence of a legislature. The BBC news reported that during the 2002 Zimbabwe election "some people from Europe were in Zimbabwe to watch how the voting was run. The Norwegian observers said the election was severely flawed and failed to meet international standards." (BBC News, 2002) the numbers also tell a sorry tale, as Mugabe's Zanu-PF party still dominates what is virtually a one party state occupying 147 out of the country's 150 parliamentary seats. (BBC News, 2000) Lastly, John Locke above all stressed that the citizens of all nations have a property in their own persons, that the labor of the citizen's body and the work of the citizen's hands properly belong to the citizen,…

BBC News. "Robert Mugabe: Zimbabwe Strongman." February 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/643737.stm

BBC News. "Robert Mugabe wins Zimbabwe election." 13 March 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/world/newsid_1870000/1870227.stm

Locke, John. Second Treatise on Government. Prometheus Books, 1987.

Locke and Nozick Conceptions of

Finally, property comes only through one's own labor. Therefore, money then becomes a conduit to translate labor into property in the modern sense. obert Nozick offers several modern praises and critiques of Locke's ancient concepts. Nozick critiques Locke's assumption of natural law based on the limited context of his era. England claimed to have a divine right to acquire property, yet in a free market economy this does not so applicably apply, "Lock believed that makers have property rights with respect to what they make just as God has property rights with respect to human beings because he is their maker," (Tuckness 1). In today's market, there is less faith in the concept of divine law, but rather a system built for functioning for the people. According to Nozick, Lockean property rights "constrain the extent to which we are entitled to act on our intuitions and theories about distributive justice,"…

Locke, John. The Second Treatise on Civil Government. Prometheus Books. 1986.

Tuckness, Alex. "Locke's Political Philosophy." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. Retrieved 28 Oct 2009 at

Locke One of the Most

For example, teaching children to be modest is a matter of both reason and virtue. It is a matter of virtue because it allows for a deeper and more respectful approach to life and the relationships with the others. A modest person has more changes to focus his life on being instead of on having. Ideally this would render one more free and also happier. It is a matter of reason because modesty can be directly connected with balance. A balanced person sees things more clearly and is supposed to have better changes of understanding things as they really are and also achieving his purposes. There is a very important assumption that one can understand in Locke's work, the one that man understands that it is better for him to be moral and not just because this will bring him various types of advantages, but because it is God who…

Bibliography:

Locke, John, Some thoughts concerning education. Kindle edition.

Yolton, W. John, Locke: Education for virtue.

Locke and Rousseau on the Question of

Locke and Rousseau on the Question of Inequality John Locke's Second Treatise of Government argues that "men are naturally free" (55). In other words, Locke believed that humans, in their natural state, and prior to the creation of civil society, would have been a kind of sovereign entity, possessing a set of natural rights prescribed by God and nature, and those rights would have afforded individuals the opportunity to protect themselves against the transgressions of others. Societies, for their part, were set up in order to avoid civil, interpersonal, or foreign wars -- wars that might have occurred over a dispute, for example, about property. Locke believed that in the early stages of evolution, humans would have lived with one another as co-owners of the earth and its resources, and given this type of communal existence, humans were all equal. In the natural world, a natural set of laws took…

Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. Ed C.B. Macpherson. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1980.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality Among Mankind." In The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. Ed. Lester G. Crocker. New York: Washington Square, 1974. 149-258.

John Keatings and the Prep School in

John Keatings and the prep school in Dead Poet's Society: Where do they fit in the philosophies of education? John Keatings is, if not anything else, an original thinker and teacher in Dead Poet's Society. The film does not at all bother to hide this fact even in the opening sequences: Keatings is shown as different from the other teachers even by virtue of his grimaces and squeamishness. John Locke wrote of education, "Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered." John Keatings believes in this Lockian principle, but only to a certain degree. In his classroom, Keatings stressed virtue: He taught his students how to live and feel and treat one another as much as he taught them to classics. In fact, he deliberately skips the theoretical works in the class -- even having his students…

Johnson, Tony & Reed, Ronald. "Philosophical Documents in Education." Second Edition.

John Marshall Was the Greatest Puritan of

John Marshall was the greatest Puritan of them all. Puritans emphasized an individual relationship with God, and rejected organized religion's dogmas. Certainly, Puritans have long been against slavery. In this context, John Marshall, a well-known opponent of slavery, and a proponent of individual rights can be said to be one of the greatest Puritans. The Puritans emerged in the 18th Century, from the teachings of John Locke. They rejected the dogmas of the major religious denominations of Europe, and emphasized the idea of an individual relationship with God. Many Puritans came to American in order to avoid religious persecution at home. Interestingly, a common misconception about Puritans is that they are highly intolerant, especially of other races and religions. While there have been specific incidents of religious and racial intolerance by Puritans, in general the Puritan religion is one of tolerance towards others. Specifically, the famous preacher Jonathan Edwards (who…

Locke and Hume the Enlightenment

To achieve his ends man gives up, in favour of the state, a certain amount of his personal power and freedom Pre-social man as a moral being, and as an individual, contracted out "into civil society by surrendering personal power to the ruler and magistrates, and did so as "a method of securing natural morality more efficiently." To Locke, natural justice exists and this is so whether the state exists, or not, it is just that the state might better guard natural justice Locke in his works dwelt with and expanded upon the concept of government power: it is not, nor can it possibly be, absolutely arbitrary over the lives and fortunes of the people. For it being but the joint power of every member of the society given up to the legislative assembly, the power vested in the assembly can be no greater than that which the people had…

Declaration of Independence." Retrieved December 19, 2004 from http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. C.B Macpherson (Editor). London: Penguin Books (1985) [1651]

Hume, David a Treatise of Human Nature. Edited by L.A. Selby-Bigge and P.H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975 [1737].

Hume, David. Essays, Moral, Political and Literary. Edited by E.F. Miller. Indianapolis. in.: Liberty Classics, 1985.

Locke and Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke: Perspectives on Governance and Power Though John Locke's theory of natural law and natural rights at first glance seem to oppose the conservative authoritarianism of Thomas Hobbes', both men set out to establish a framework for governance that would protect the rights of individuals. John Locke takes the approach that a democratic nation with a system of checks and balances was an essential ingredient to protecting man's natural rights. Hobbes was also interested in protecting the interests of individuals, but having grown up during tumultuous times, believed that a strong hand was necessary within a governing body to prevent man from destroying himself. Each of these idealisms is important influences to the Constitution of the United States, setting up a framework for a governing authority that protects the rights of people while maintaining a state of peace and order. These ideas are explored in greater…

Arneil, Barbara. "John Locke and America: The Defense of English Colonialism." Clarendon Press, 1996

Green, M.S. "The Paradox of Auxiliary Rights: The Privilege against Self-Incrimination and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms." Duke Law Journal, Vol. 52: 2002

Henry, John F. "John Locke, Property Rights and Economic Theory." Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 33: 1999

Locke vs Hume on Consent

Political Obligation When it comes to political science and philosophy, there are many subjects and points of analysis that are very intriguing, widely discussed and heavily debated. There are also certain people, both past and present, that have proved themselves as scholars on those political subjects. Such is the case with both John Locke and David Hume. One particular subject that both men weighed in on was the role of consent when it comes to the creation of political obligation. The positions of both men will be covered in this report and the author of the same will come to a conclusion as to which man made the better argument. Political obligation, of course, is the general rule that the law must be obeyed. Consent, on the other hand, is much more nebulous in terms of definition and concept and that will be covered in this report. While both men…

Locke and Hume' Conceptions of

Hume's conception is a more temperate one, but at the same time more vague, skeptical and relative. Neither for Hume, the substance of body or soul is not the primary focus, but the changing perceptions - becoming conscious of the bundle of perceptions characteristic for a person at a certain time. However, for Hume, these perceptions do not belong to anything; they do not belong to a "thinking substance" as with Locke. Hume holds that the "self" is utterly unobservable. In the process of introspection, all we may observe are fleeting thoughts, feelings, and experiences: never a self. Therefore, Hume's view on personal identity is not entirely clear, Locke establishes a clearer concept of personal identity, even though a contradictory one. A common point between the two philosophers is their diachronic view of personal identity. ith Locke, the same soul or thinking substance is neither necessary not sufficient for personal…

Mendus, Susan, "Personal Identity: The Two Analogies in Hume," Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 118 (Jan., 1980), pp. 61-68

Intisar-Ul-Haque. "The Person and Personal Identity." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Volume 31, Issue 1 (Sep. 1970), pp. 60-72.

Preston, Aron, David Hume's Treatment of Mind, http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Mind/MindPres.htm

Locke and Nathan Tarcov

Letter From a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Locke's views on social contracts. Specifically it will discuss the structure of law according to Locke and how King's views on civil disobedience and how they related to Locke's views. Both men talk about the types of laws and whether they are social contracts, along with our obligation under law. John Locke believed laws were central to a civil society, and in fact, they defined civil society. He wrote, "Those who are united into one body, and have a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them, and punish offenders, are in civil society one with another" (Locke 3). He also believed that no one should be exempt from the laws, or a civil society would not exist. Laws are created when civil society elects representatives, who pass laws that act…

Locke, John. Chapters 7 & 8.

Tarcov, Nathan. "Locke's Second Treatise and 'The Best Fence Against Rebellion'." The Review of Politics, Vol. 43, No. 2 (April, 1981), pp. 198-219.

Social and Political Philosophy Locke

Locke vs. Marx The principles of the Enlightenment have come down to the modern world through the governments which are in currently in place. Any representative form of government, throughout the world, can trace it's roots back to John Locke and the Enlightenment principles he espoused in his Two Treatises of Government. In this book, first published in 1690, Locke spelled out his ideas on government; how it derived it's powers from the consent of the governed, how their was a contract between the government and the governed, and what restrictions and obligations each had to each other, and to the rest of society. Locke sought to establish the rules for a civilized society, based upon what he viewed as the "laws of nature," in order to create a stable and prosperous society in line with the natural state of mankind. A century and a half later, Karl Marx espoused…

Locke, John, and Peter Laslett (ed.). Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. Print.

Marx, Karl. "On the Jewish Question by Karl Marx" Marxist Internet Archive. Web 30 Apr. 2011. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question/

Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and L.M. Findlay. The Communist Manifesto. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2004. Print.

"God gave the world to men in common" is a theme that supports the view that Locke would see property and something that should not be wasted, as waste deprives others. That survival is taken out of the equation tilts the moral balance towards Locke viewing much of the expropriation of land that occurs in South Florida as needless. There remains the question of spinoff benefits, and this is something that lies at the heart of much debate about land use today. While the proverbial Donald Trump may not need to expropriate that land in order to survive, there are going to be people who work on that land who do support themselves and their families. The landowner is not necessarily the beneficiary of that land's development. On the surface it seems self-evident that if jobs are created that the expropriation should be viewed as acceptable by Locke. However, it…

John Kotter Confucious Machiavelli and

He had an opportunity to utilize his theories when he became head of the Florentine militia and helped overthrow the de Medici family rulers. His byword was "force and prudence," and he believed that demonstrating a combination of these two things is the mark of an effective leader. Kotter may agree that prudence is a valuable characteristic in a leader, but disagrees with the outdated principle of force, saying that change cannot be forced, it must be incorporated into one's life and future: Change sticks only when it becomes "the way we do things around here," when it seeps into the very bloodstream of the work unit or corporate body. Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are always subject to degradation as soon as the pressures associated with a change effort are removed (Kotter, 1996, 14). Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an influential philosopher, artist and…

Kotter, John. Biography. Harvard Business School, 2007. Website: http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=bio&facEmId=jkotter&loc=extn .

Kotter, John. Leading Change. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

Kotter, John. Power and Influence. New York: Simon & Schuster Free Press.1985.

John Rawls Justice as Fairness a Restatement

John Rawls reworks the theses contained in his previous works with Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Rawls' political philosophy is a modern formulation, presupposing a democratic foundation, which seeks to define justice as a purely political concept. Because Rawls' previous work, A Theory of Justice, still contained moral arguments, the author here attempts to divest the concept of justice as fairness from its moral underpinnings. Therefore, with Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, Rawls reformulates the basic theories contained within his former works in order to distinguish the political from the moral or philosophical spheres. Justice as Fairness contains elements found in the theories of political philosophers like Locke, Hobbes, Kant, Hegel, and Marx and the book is a compilation of his political philosophy lectures at Harvard in the 1980s. Rawls systematically analyses the idea of justice as a primarily political concept. He then applies this concept to a workable theory…

Locke and Hobbes in Many

And thus much shall suffice; concerning what I find by speculation, and deduction, of Soveraign Rights, from the nature, need, and designes of men, in erecting of Common-wealths, and putting themselves under Monarchs, or Assemblies, entrusted with power enough for their protection. Hobbes & aller 143-144) There would then seem to be little question as to the divides between Hobbes and Locke, with Hobbes stating firmly that they are very different (but may have similarities) and Locke calling them entirely the same, and only different in scale. This is also proof of the thesis that the divergence of the philosophies rides almost entirely on a core difference between Locke and Hobbes, as Locke stresses that the ultimate sovereign of all man is God Hobbes and relies on no such dominion or demand upon man and his governance of reason and society. orks Cited Hobbes, Thomas, aller, a.R., ed. Leviathan: Or,…

Hobbes, Thomas, Waller, a.R., ed. Leviathan: Or, the Matter, Forme & Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civill. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1904.

Locke, John. The Second Treatise of Civil Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration. Ed J.W. Gough. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1946.

John Knox, the Scottish Reformer, is hailed as one of the fathers of Protestant church reform. His undying passion for his beliefs as well as a strong bond of friendship with several religious women, sustained him in his work until he died. His work comprises a number of sermons and religious writings that carry on his legacy to this day. There is some disagreement regarding the year of his birth, but critics believe this event to be somewhere in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The Dictionary of National iography for example places Knox's birth at round about 15141, while Miles Hodges places it at 15052. According to the Dictionary, Knox was born at Cliffordgate in Haddington. An interesting fact is that he occasionally adopted his mother's maiden name, Sinclair, as an alias when he found himself obliged to hide from persecutors. His father, William Knox came from…

Dawson, Jane E.A. 2004. 'Knox, John (c.1514 -- 1572)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.

Hodges, Miles. 2001. John Knox. History: the Reformation

http://www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/knox2.htm

Grimm, Harold John. 1958. The reformation era, 1500-1650 New York: Macmillan

Thoreau and Locke Acknowledge the Right of

Thoreau and Locke acknowledge the right of the people to renounce their allegiance to their government, what is the difference between their understandings of this right and what different conditions would warrant such an act? When do citizens have the right to throw off the yoke of a sovereign and adopt a new form of governance that is more in keeping with the wishes and their needs of the majority of the populace? During the age of the Enlightenment in Great Britain, the philosopher John Locke wrote in his "Second Treatise of Governance," that all governments of the world must protect the life, liberty, and property rights of the common citizens. Locke wrote that if a government fails to honor this function, then its citizens had the right to revolt against the government, as the social contract between the governed and the government was not being honored. For example, if…

Hobbes and Locke Popular Sovereignty

Hobbes, Locke, And Democracy There once was a time when kings ruled and their people were subject to the absolute authority of that king. The king literally was the law, whatever he said became law. All of his subject had an obligation to be loyal to their king simply because God had appointed him king. Kings claimed their authority from God, and therefore possessed the ultimate authority. However, beginning in the 1600's in England, the people began to see the relationship between king and subjects a bit differently. A new ideal emerged, the idea that a king's authority came from the consent of the people, not from God. It was Thomas Hobbes, in his book Leviathan who first broached the subject that the relationship between the king and the people was a two way relationship. The king and people formed a "social contract" and each had it's responsibilities to the…

Hobbes, Thomas, and J.C.A. Gaskin (ed.). Leviathan. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.

Hobbes and Locke

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke each formulated notions regarding human liberty in nearly the same social, political, and provincial circumstances. Although their most famous works were separated approximately forty years from one another, they were both wealthy members of seventeenth century English society during a period of particular social and religious turmoil. Similarly, both Hobbes and Locke sought to use reasoning to determine the most appropriate form of political and social organization. It should be anticipated, therefore, that their fundamental conceptions regarding freedom also possess many similarities; however -- aside from their initial premises -- Hobbes and Locke vary wildly in both their approaches to the topic of freedom and the consequences they believe these lines of reasoning hold for society. Locke has come to be thought of as one of the founders of modern political philosophy in the West, and rightly so. Hobbes, on the other hand, has continued…

1. Cahn, Steven M. (1999), Classics of Western Philosophy: Fifth Edition, Hackett Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana

2. Collinson, Diane, (1987), Fifty Major Philosophers, Routledge Publishing, New York, New York

3. Cottingham, John, (1996), Western Philosophy: an Anthology, Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, Massachusetts

4. McGreal, Ian P. (1992), Great Thinkers of the Western World, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, New York

Marx and Locke

Monticello, the mansion that Thomas Jefferson designed in the hills of Virginia near the State University that he founded, has three portraits that are to be found on the wall of President Jefferson's study that have remained there for 200 years. These portraits are of three writers Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton and John Locke. Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and acquired the Louisiana Purchase form the French, refers to these three as "the greatest men who ever lived." e see Lockean reasoning reflected in the Declaration where Jefferson says that we hold life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be self-evident truths. A similar reverence was afforded Karl Marx in the Soviet Union, where many streets and several smaller cities were named after Marx and his fellow communist Frederick Engels. One could argue that the primary ideologies of the 20th-century were those of Locke and Marx, as…

We can see the best examples of these 19th century economic theories in the works of Henry George, a populist who wished to ensure plurality by limiting the ability of property owners to hoard natural resources, and Herbert Spencer, an English sociologist who incorporated Darwinism into his defenses of what is now termed 'classical' liberalism and famously advocated "the right to ignore the state."

Locke, John, Second Treatise on Self-Government. http://www.swan.ac.uk/poli/texts/locke/lockcont.htm

Marxist Origins of Communism, George Mason University. http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/marx1.htm

Parental Authority Hobbes and Locke

Parental authority is something Hobbes believes is based on a contract. Parents take care of children in exchange for the obedience of the child. Locke believes parental authority relies on biological inheritance and the natural rights bestowed on a parent to take care of a needy creature they bring into the world. He also states, children are bound by honor to obey the parent until they reach 'an age of reason'. Such a convoluted and complex interpretation of parental authority is why Locke's perspective is wrong and Hobbes' perspective is right. Hobbes' interpretation of parental authority is simple and linear, introducing the concept of choice and obligation onto the parent and child. By providing an understanding that both parties are responsible and if lacking, have no rights in that respect, it makes parental authority appear more of a responsibility rather than a right. This makes Hobbes' perspective more convincing. This…

Education of Young Children John

" [EU: I.III, 3] Locke consistently favored the role played by parents in early childhood education for he argued that children learn best when they are exposed to knowledge from an early age by their parents. Nurturing by adults was thus an essential component of Locke's education philosophy. However ousseau did not agree with such intervention. He felt that a child could develop his mental capacities best when allowed to use his own reason without supervision of a guide. The role of nature is more important in ousseau's education philosophy and hence he opposed Locke's views on nurturing. ousseau felt a child had the natural capacity to make sense of his surroundings, gain knowledge from it on his own and hence self-educate himself. He thus doesn't need to depend on adults but rather only on his own reasoning faculty. He thus encouraged freedom and non-habitual learning: He explained that a…

Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Peter H. Nidditch. New York: Oxford UP, 1975.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile, Julie and Other Writings. Edited by R.L. Archer. New York: Barron, 1964.

Rousseau, Emile, Julie and Other Writings, 80.

Hobbes Locke & Federalism One of

So, who was right? Well, it seems that history has taught us again and again that in certain conditions, humans do express their evil and competitive natures (e.g. fascism, genocide, etc.); but that in other situations, the species can be incredibly giving and benevolent (think of Mother Theresa, people helping people). The complexity is that humans are not all one type or another, but a combination. Most sociologists believe that it is culture and society that form the basis for behavior. For example, the Kung! Bushmen of South Africa have no crime, very little disagreement, and understand they must cooperate for the good of the tribe. owever, if we look at the Epic of Gilgamesh or the Code of ammurabi, we find that the earliest civilizations had to provide structure and that evil nature was as much a part of humanity as goodness. The debate remains -- is the cup…

Hobbes looked around, and saw a sewer of urban life; poor people struggling, disease, trash, pestilence and believed that without control mankind was nothing more than animalistic. Locke thought otherwise, that humans, given a chance to actualize, would cooperate, work towards a common good, and provide a generalized and goal-oriented society. So, who was right? Well, it seems that history has taught us again and again that in certain conditions, humans do express their evil and competitive natures (e.g. fascism, genocide, etc.); but that in other situations, the species can be incredibly giving and benevolent (think of Mother Theresa, people helping people). The complexity is that humans are not all one type or another, but a combination. Most sociologists believe that it is culture and society that form the basis for behavior. For example, the Kung! Bushmen of South Africa have no crime, very little disagreement, and understand they must cooperate for the good of the tribe. However, if we look at the Epic of Gilgamesh or the Code of Hammurabi, we find that the earliest civilizations had to provide structure and that evil nature was as much a part of humanity as goodness. The debate remains -- is the cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full -- or is it both?

The Federalist movement surrounding the writing and eventual ratification of the U.S. Constitution focused on one basic premise: how much power and authority should the national, versus State, government control. Certainly, once can view that if the Articles of Confederation were deemed to be too weak and inappropriate for the new Republic, then the Federalist faction won. Rhode Island and North Carolina especially opposed the Federalist view, but eventually the Bill of Rights seemed to satisfy most of the delegates who realized that the alternative would be suicide. This did not stop individual States from wanting to secede long before the Civil War, and indeed, the actual finality of the issue of State's rights was not really solved until the mid-20th century, when the Supreme Court issued several decisions requiring that the tenets of the Bill of Rights be established in all 50 States.

If one considers the political issues of the Jeffersonian Era up to the War Between the States, then one might say that although the Constitution provided a legal means for a strong centralized government, that was on paper and States tended to act and react in their own ways to a point. There was consternation during the 1812 issues with the British, when new States entered the Union there were issues on whether they would be Slave or Free States. Thus, the Federalists really only had the appearance of victory after the Constitutional Convention, not the buy in and acceptance of the policy for decades afterwards.

Justice Political Philosopher John Rawls Looks at

Justice, political philosopher John Rawls looks at the idea of social justice and the individual rights of the individual by redefining the last 200+ years of the American experience. In general, he looks at the manner in which the Founding Fathers were correct by basing their views on previous social contract theorists like Locke and Rousseau. For example, there is a clear linkage between John Locke and Rawls that validates the ideas of liberalism within American society. In fact, Rawls notes that the American Experience extended the concept of justice far beyond hat any of the Enlightenment philosophers ever hoped (Rawls, 1957). Rawls (1921-2002), an American philosopher who focused on moral and political philosophy, believed that the principles of justice are the models that rational individuals who are free would choose as basic ways to cooperate within their society. He called this position the original position, in that it was…

Kamm, F. (2007). Intricate Ethics: Rights, Responsibilities and Permissible Harm. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rawls, J. (1957). Justice as Fairness. Philosophical Review. 54 (22): 653-62.

Rawls, J. (1999). A Theory of Justice. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.

Rawls, J. (2001). A Theory of Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Descartes Locke's

life as developed by two famous philosophers. John Locke and enee Descartes both believed they had come up with an understandable and scientific philosophy about the foundation of life. The writer of this paper compares and contrasts those beliefs. There were three sources used to complete this paper. Throughout history, mankind has tried to develop a philosophy that will explain the existence of life. There have been abstract ideas, concrete ideas, spiritual ideas and others to try and explain the foundation of life in a way that can be understood in future generations. Two of the most scientifically respected men in history worked to develop theories about the foundation of life that could be understood in a scientific manner. John Locke and enee Descartes are well-known for their theories about life. The theories have several similarities as well as several differences. The men made history with their theories about the…

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/locke.htm #Knowledgeof Mathematics, Ethics, the Self, and God

Think, therefore I am... NOT! http://teachanimalobjectivity.homestead.com/files/return2.htm

Rene Descartes: 'I think therefore I am' http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Outline_of_Great_Books_Volume_I/ithinkth_bga.html

Aristotle Locke Aristotle and Locke

The inherent benefits to a more functional economy justified a sensible distribution of property and resources, he would contend. Though Locke's ideals would be essential in the development of western civilization as it exists today, it would really be the perspective of Aristotle here that would offer us a compelling window into the early and obvious objections to the nature of capitalism. Their shared view on property ownership suggests that there may be something innate in the human need to acquire, both in terms of the which it practically enables in terms of survival and in terms of the various esoteric functions served by properties of a non-essential nature. However, Locke's vision proves a more idealistic and somewhat flawed prediction of the impact of free market capitalism, with valuable ideals on the development of the self functioning to obscure pressing questions about the oppression, exploitation and resource scarcity which modern…

Works Cited:

Murray, P. (1997). Reflections on Commercial Life: An Anthology of Classic Texts From Plato to Present. Routledge.

Thirdly, Rawls thinks that one would not choose the principle of average utility from the original position, because of equality that is given by the original position. The original…

According to Locke man is born with a natural liberty that means he should be free from subordination to any "superior power on earth, and not to be under…

John Locke and Two Treatises of Government Locke's Conception of the State of Nature vs. The State of War In "Two Treatises of Government" Locke strives to present the…

On the other hand, he suggested that the executive branch was responsible for insuring that the laws are actually obeyed and that it should operate continuously in society. His…

John Locke are found in the "Declaration of Independence"? Three values John Locke discussed in his 1690 "Two Treatises of Government" are echoed in the wording of the "Declaration…

John Locke's understanding of freedom and equality is the essential basis of any happy and prosperous society." How would the following individuals react to this quote: ousseau, King Louis…

Black Studies - Philosophy

Locke PRIMARY AND SECONDARY QUALITIES ohn Locke believed that every object has primary and secondary qualities. In other words, he maintained that every object consisted of primary and secondary…

'" Yolton follows that with what he believes Locke really meant; "The mental content of any act of awareness or thought" is an "idea" to Locke. But as to…

..you will find his portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, but demand is insufficient for a postcard to be on sale" (Goldie, 2004). But today Locke's writings are used…

Research Proposal

Therefore, the people always maintain the (natural) right to overthrow any state authority that fails to act in the best interest of the people or that excuses itself from…

If he also bartered away plums that would have rotted in a week, for nuts that would last good for his eating a whole year, he did no injury;…

With this example, it is not surprising that John Locke is considered an instrument for the right political cause. Aside from the essays that he had written, Locke also…

Business - Law

S. Constitution as offering much protection but instead view it as being the responsibility of the states to provide protection for private property owners. In the event that the…

Locke combined the rational, deductive theory of Rene Descartes and the inductive, scientific experimentalism of Francis Bacon and the Royal Society. He gave the estern world the first modern…

These rights are voluntarily given by the people to the government through a 'social contract' and governments exist only to protect such rights. How Far is Locke's "Theory of…

John Locke Employment -- the Morality of the Contract between Employee and Employer Before entering into a contract for employment, an employees' first concern is usually to gain a…

And because you breached the conditions set in this social contract, we are now taking full ownership, once again, of our liberties and properties that we had entrusted you.…

He continued to study medicine with Thomas Sydenham as his mentor. (ikipedia) He had an unsuccessful attempt to prevent James II from reaching the throne, and, as a result…

Locke's theory concerning the way a person learns about the world in which she or he lives is supported and reinforced by many of today's studies in psychology. Locke…

Mythology - Religion

He argued that forgiveness could not be bought with money, and that it could only come as a result of the relationship between God and the sinner. His writings…

Substance According to John Locke John Locke along with the likes of Berkley and Hume was a British Empiricist. He was of the theory that all knowledge was based…

Colleen -- but then again, when you're dealing with food services, every day's a long day. As she made her way toward the stairs and away from the brooding…

" This is certainly much in line with our current democratic system in the United States which exists solely to guarantee that all men and women are free individuals…

In Marx's view, equality extends in terms of distribution, where there is no private ownership, but where the government manages all goods for the supposed good of all citizens.…

Second Treatise of Government," by John Locke is a revolutionary philosophical work that directly opposed the idea of absolutism. Absolutism held that the best form of government was autocratic,…

Locke v. Berkeley The philosophers John Locke and George Berkeley offer stark contrasts on the issue of various matters. Locke's whose viewpoint can best be classified as based in…

As for knowledge, Locke believed that "the best and surest way to get clear and distinct knowledge is through examining and judging ideas by themselves" (Locke, 1997, VI: I).…

This body then has the right and duty, especially if elected to represent to build the laws and enforce the judgment of those laws, as a reflection of the…

In addition, other just men may join in the attempt to destroy the unjust, while those on the unjust side -- who will not think of themselves as unjust…

Basically, Hobbes takes a long historical view of human society, and sees the continuation of civil societies -- i.e. those organized under governments -- as the prime necessity for…

" Money can only be hoarded because it has no real use; it will not feed or cloth someone who is starving or cold. This implies that things like…

Others might allege that Mugabe has held elections, unlike John Locke's legitimate sovereign. But the presence of elections does not necessarily guarantee the existence of a good and fair…

Finally, property comes only through one's own labor. Therefore, money then becomes a conduit to translate labor into property in the modern sense. obert Nozick offers several modern praises…

For example, teaching children to be modest is a matter of both reason and virtue. It is a matter of virtue because it allows for a deeper and more…

Locke and Rousseau on the Question of Inequality John Locke's Second Treatise of Government argues that "men are naturally free" (55). In other words, Locke believed that humans, in…

John Keatings and the prep school in Dead Poet's Society: Where do they fit in the philosophies of education? John Keatings is, if not anything else, an original thinker…

To achieve his ends man gives up, in favour of the state, a certain amount of his personal power and freedom Pre-social man as a moral being, and as…

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke: Perspectives on Governance and Power Though John Locke's theory of natural law and natural rights at first glance seem to oppose the conservative authoritarianism…

Political Science

Political Obligation When it comes to political science and philosophy, there are many subjects and points of analysis that are very intriguing, widely discussed and heavily debated. There are…

Hume's conception is a more temperate one, but at the same time more vague, skeptical and relative. Neither for Hume, the substance of body or soul is not the…

Letter From a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Locke's views on social contracts. Specifically it will discuss the structure of law according to Locke and…

Locke vs. Marx The principles of the Enlightenment have come down to the modern world through the governments which are in currently in place. Any representative form of government,…

"God gave the world to men in common" is a theme that supports the view that Locke would see property and something that should not be wasted, as waste…

He had an opportunity to utilize his theories when he became head of the Florentine militia and helped overthrow the de Medici family rulers. His byword was "force and…

And thus much shall suffice; concerning what I find by speculation, and deduction, of Soveraign Rights, from the nature, need, and designes of men, in erecting of Common-wealths, and…

John Knox, the Scottish Reformer, is hailed as one of the fathers of Protestant church reform. His undying passion for his beliefs as well as a strong bond of…

Thoreau and Locke acknowledge the right of the people to renounce their allegiance to their government, what is the difference between their understandings of this right and what different…

Hobbes, Locke, And Democracy There once was a time when kings ruled and their people were subject to the absolute authority of that king. The king literally was the…

Monticello, the mansion that Thomas Jefferson designed in the hills of Virginia near the State University that he founded, has three portraits that are to be found on the…

Parental authority is something Hobbes believes is based on a contract. Parents take care of children in exchange for the obedience of the child. Locke believes parental authority relies…

" [EU: I.III, 3] Locke consistently favored the role played by parents in early childhood education for he argued that children learn best when they are exposed to knowledge…

So, who was right? Well, it seems that history has taught us again and again that in certain conditions, humans do express their evil and competitive natures (e.g. fascism,…

Business - Ethics

Justice, political philosopher John Rawls looks at the idea of social justice and the individual rights of the individual by redefining the last 200+ years of the American experience.…

life as developed by two famous philosophers. John Locke and enee Descartes both believed they had come up with an understandable and scientific philosophy about the foundation of life.…

The inherent benefits to a more functional economy justified a sensible distribution of property and resources, he would contend. Though Locke's ideals would be essential in the development of…

John Lockes Theory Of Personal Identity Research Paper

Compare and contrast galileo galilei and john locke essay, college admissions essay: enduring and independent self, critically examine the way in which locke interprets the distinction between real and nominal essences, charlotte perkins gilmans the yellow wallpaper, john stuart mills’ – on liberty, analysing on liberty by john stuart mill, john locke essay examples.

2022 Essay Competition Results

Announcing the 2022 essay prize winners congratulations to the 2022 shortlisted candidates, all of whom were awarded a commendation . below are lists of prizewinners and recipients of high commendations , which are awarded to the writers of the best of the shortlisted essays., grand prize, benjamin who , the hotchkiss school, usa.

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to Beijing NormalUniversity, China

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According To John Locke What Fundamental Element Made Government Legitimate?

According to John Locke, the fundamental element that made government legitimate is the consent of the people. This can be seen in his Second Treatise of Government. In this work, Locke argues that all governments must be based on the consent of those governed. The purpose of government is to protect the rights of citizens and ensure they are treated fairly. Government exists to serve its citizens, not vice versa.

Locke’s theory of government was based on the idea that people have natural rights and liberties. These natural rights include life, liberty and property. People are entitled to these rights because they are human beings, not because they belong to any particular country or society.

According to Locke’s theory, governments exist only as long as they can justify their right to rule by appealing to the consent of those who are governed. If rulers fail to gain this consent through fair and just laws and institutions, then they cease being legitimate rulers and must be overthrown by force if necessary (or replaced if possible).

In addition, Locke believed that all governments were based on two different types of power – political power and natural power. Political power is given by God to those who govern, while natural power is derived from an individual’s sense of self-preservation. Natural rights are also a part of this natural power. These rights include life, liberty and property – although they may be limited in certain ways by government action.

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When examining John Locke, the legal philosopher’s theory, he believes “that men have produced a society with unequal distribution of wealth simply by putting a value on gold and silver, by using money as a means of exchange” (Powell, 1996). Locke does not openly say that this is right or even fair, but merely that this arrangement is the ordinary result of men setting a significance on gold and silver and incidentally approving in the use of money. Locke goes on to say in his own words that, “This

Essay On John Locke

John Locke; born on August 29, 1632, lived up to his life. His work is still remembered to this day even with his death on October 28, 1704. “We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us.” John Locke said himself. He believed that in order to have peace on the world all points of view needed to be seen. This melting pot of ideas, if established into politics would result in equal power. This is why John Locke is also known as the “Father

John Locke Enlightenment

through a philosopher called John Locke who had ideas on freedom of religion and the rights of citizens and also wrote two books in order to show his points those books are called “Two Treatises of Civil Government” and “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” where he starts to discuss political power, state of nature, difference between state of nature, and state of war, functioning of property and the way the government should be run in the “two treatises of

Influence On John Locke

Early in his life, John Locke was influenced by Lord Ashley, who became the Earl of Shaftsbury. Ashley’s influence on Locke's political philosophy and profession were immense. The Lord’s view of government and how it should rule never left Locke as evident by his writing. John Locke studied medicine at Oxford, where he became a prominent philosopher in 17th Century England. His works included such topics as political philosophy, epistemology, and education. Locke began teaching sweeping ideas concerning

Philosophy Of John Locke

The Philosophy of John Locke John Locke was born on August 29, 1632 in Wrington, England. His father was a lawyer and worked in the military during the English civil war. Locke was raised with puritan beliefs and received a thorough education because of his dad’s connection to the English government. During his time in school, Locke received the honor of “King’s Scholar” which paved the way for him to attended Christ Church, Oxford in 1652. In Oxford, Locke studied mathematics, metaphysics, and multiple

John Locke Dbq

I think John Locke’s idea makes more sense because his beliefs match up with mine. He believes that war should not be used unless it’s the last possible option we have, and that’s what I think too. If two parties are in an argument, then they should do everything that they can do to talk it out and let it remain nonphysical, but if it comes down to self-defense, then yes by all means, fight back! I think the only reason that you should resort to violence is when the other party does first. In Document

John Locke Equality

In the first section, titled Of the State of Nature, Locke starts off by talking about the different “states” every man is in. The first of these is the state of perfect freedom. This perfect freedom includes being able to decide for themselves what their actions are going to be. He also states that this perfect freedom give them the right to decide for themselves if and when they want to get rid of not only their own items/property, but also their persons, which at the time would include slaves

John Locke studied medicine at Oxford where he became a highly influential philosopher in 17th Century England. His writing was about such topics as political philosophy, epistemology, and education. Early in his career Locke was influenced by Lord Ashley who became the Earl of Shaftsbury. His influence on Locke's professional career and his political thoughts cannot be understated. Shaftsbury’s outlook on rule and government never left Locke as evident by his writing. Locke began teaching radical

John Locke Politics

According to Encyclopedia (2017) John Locke was an English scientist and philosopher who helped launch the Age of Enlightenment. Locke's most famous political work is called Two Treatises of Government. The second treatise, or essay, published in 1689, contains his theory of how government should be organized. Locke argued that the lawmaking branch of government must be separate from the executive branch, the one that executes the laws (John Locke and the separation of powers section, para

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John Locke’s Social Contract Theory:

Introduction: The Social Contract Theory argues that people’s morals and obligations depend on an agreement among them in order to form the society in which they reside. John Locke's argues that the state of nature of man is perfect, and no one is to interfere each other’s’ lives. He states that even though the state of nature is one without punishment from the authority, it is not pre-moral (Friend, 2004). In Hobbes's argument, he points out that without identification and recognition of a universal authority, chaos is the order of man. In contrast to this, Locke and Rosseau state that the role of power in a nation is to look after the rights of the citizens. If it fails in this, the citizens have the ability to withdraw their support and resist. (Friend, 2004). Hobbes argues that the government is right, and the nation is its reflection and a result of the government's decisions. Locke states that the significant role of the government is to ensure justice prevails. Rousseau's view is that it should always safeguard the freedom and liberty of its citizens. (Kymlicka, 2003). In Hobbes's theory of social contract, he supports the supreme authority with less regard to the citizens. Locke and Rosseau side with the citizens more than with the government. (Friend, 2004). The sovereign and government appear similar to Hobbes. Rosseau differentiates the two where he rules out a representative form of government. (Locke, 2003). Rousseau's analysis of sovereignty was an adjustment of both Locke's constitutionalism and Hobbes's absolutism. (Friend, 2004). Life is an essential principle in Locke's social contract theory. He states that God gave us life, and no one has the authority to take away which is His. God forbids us from harming one another. It shows the equality that exists among men and the value of human life. (John. 2003). Locke also speaks of liberty, where people were independent and equal. There was no government to punish people for what they did against the law was not a state without morality. It was pre-political but not pre-moral. People considered each other as equal since they were all bound by the legislation of nature. There was peace since people pursue their interests and plans without disruption from others (John, 2003). Locke speaks of property which plays a significant role in his argument for civil government and the contract established by it. He claims that private property is as a result of one's labor and raw materials of nature. There is a limitation of how much property one can obtain from life so that other's do not lack. God provides quality to man; this ensures that one cannot take and finish for others. He considered property in the state of nature as unsafe because of the absence of established law, an impartial judge and natural power to execute physical laws. The factors made the man give into Social Contract as a way of preserving order and enforcing the law of nature. (Parkinson, 2003). Locke mentions Government, which men create and leads to the introduction of laws, judges to adjudicate laws and the executive power to enforce the laws. It implies that they have handed over their power of punishing transgressors and protecting themselves to the government. He mentions that the purpose of government is to safeguard the natural rights of men, failure to fulfill their mission will prove fatality to the government (Kymlicka, 2003). Locke's idea of liberty in his definition of the statute of nature in the social contract got included in the U.S Bill of Rights. It implied equality in the society where each is free and equal, and the idea of natural rights that are inherent to each. It led to the formation of freedoms of the citizens included in the Bill of Rights with the aim of protecting the interests of the citizens. The inclusion of the limitations acted as a protective measure of people's freedoms (Locke, 2003). Locke's idea of property as reflected in his work of 1689, Two Treatises of Government, which states that the main idea behind the creation of civil society is the protection of property. The idea got adopted in the Bill of Rights to offer protection to the citizens’ property. Laws governing the protection of assets got implemented to ensure action against the lawbreakers. Measures, for example, the creation of title deeds to show legal ownership are implemented to restrict theft and fraud of people's property. (Kymlicka, 2002). Locke's idea of government, which advocated for the separation of powers and revolution in some circumstances featured in the Bil of Rights. The U.S government formed arms of the government for efficient distribution of authority to ensure the citizens get distributed attention. The action provided that all citizen's grievances got attended to whenever a complaint erupted. (Parkinson, 2006). Locke's idea of the need for humanity to acquire personal freedom and liberty represents the need for the existence of a government. It meant people to live in peace without anybody intruding on another's rights. The purpose for the formation of the government was to protect the rights and freedoms of the citizens and provide maintenance of law and order that could result in peace and harmony in the state. The citizen's views and opinions deserve respect since the government's power is invested in the citizens. The distinction of authority in the state facilitates support of society's objectives and the Justice structure in controlling the checks and balances (Gill, 2011). They create bases in passing judgment in the criminal justice system where the ruling for or against a lawbreaker is required. It mostly applies in courts where one receives punishment according to the law. The presence of a judge, who is a representative of the law is mandatory in a court of justice. Witnesses, judges, and other people presence provide an audience for the case and the ruling made. The reported may either be released on bail, arrested for life or booked for punishment in line with the crime committed. (Gill, 2011). In security settings, codes or conduct form the backbone where the issue of equality among citizens is the issue of concern. People deserve fair treatment in the society regardless of their positions of office. Some people abuse power by use of their position to commit a crime and get away with it. When law catches up with any wrongdoer, official action against them must be taken to reduce evil in the society. The arrest of such characters ensures the safety of the other people in the community. (Gill, 2011). Concerning personal rights and ethical standards and obligations, everyone has rights and freedoms which should not be infringed by anybody. Anyone caught or reported depressing another's freedom; has the law to face. The existence of laws governing the rights and freedoms of its citizens provides a basis for punishment by law. People have the chance to report wrongdoers making the laws job better in maintaining law and order in the state. (Gill, 2011). The existence of the judicial system in the government ensures the protection of individuals’ freedom's and rights. The availability of judges and courts of law make it easy in the administration of justice in the society. There exists a book of law that contains all the rules as per the nation which guides the judge in passing verdict to a criminal. Every criminal's offense has a punishment assigned to it. The law provides a central administration reference point for all reported and arrested lawbreakers. (Gill, 2011). The government has the responsibility of protecting the ethical standards and responsibilities of every society in the nation. The people who go against the ethical standards of the community and its obligations commit a criminal offense punishable by the courts of law of the country. The citizens have a responsibility of living by the ethical standards of the society. (Gill, 2011). In conclusion, John Locke's theory played a significant role in the lives of the Americans. The Bill of Rights has some of its laws derived from his aspect of the Social Contract Theory. Locke's ideas acted as the eye opener of the people's insight into politics. Through his works, the people get knowledge on how best they could lead their lives. It provides the authority with relevant information it can use in the administration of law to its citizens. It joins the people with their government for the success of their nation. The rights and freedoms of the citizens have solutions on how to solve conflicts associated with them. Lawbreakers have their punishments written down to ensure they do not escape the law.

References:

Gill Charles (2011) John Locke’s social contract Theory. Kymlicka, W. (2002). Contemporary political philosophy: An introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration. Yale University Press (2003). Parkinson, J. (2006). Deliberating in the real world: problems of legitimacy in a deliberative democracy. Friend, C. (2004). Social contract theory.

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John Locke (1634–1704)

Study Guide

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Themes, Arguments, and Ideas

The moral role of government.

According to Locke, political power is the natural power of each man collectively given up into the hands of a designated body. The setting up of government is much less important, Locke thinks, than this original social–political “compact.” A community surrenders some degree of its natural rights in favor of government, which is better able to protect those rights than any man could alone. Because government exists solely for the well-being of the community, any government that breaks the compact can and should be replaced. The community has a moral obligation to revolt against or otherwise replace any government that forgets that it exists only for the people’s benefit. Locke felt it was important to closely examine public institutions and be clear about what functions were legitimate and what areas of life were inappropriate for those institutions to participate in or exert influence over. He also believed that determining the proper role of government would allow humans to flourish as individuals and as societies, both materially and spiritually. Because God gave man the ability to reason, the freedom that a properly executed government provides for humans amounts to the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity. For Locke, the moral order of natural law is permanent and self-perpetuating. Governments are only factors contributing to that moral order.

An Empirical Theory of Knowledge

For Locke, all knowledge comes exclusively through experience. He argues that at birth the mind is a tabula rasa, or blank slate, that humans fill with ideas as they experience the world through the five senses. Locke defines knowledge as the connection and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy, of the ideas humans form. From this definition it follows that our knowledge does not extend beyond the scope of human ideas. In fact, it would mean that our knowledge is even narrower than this description implies, because the connection between most simple human ideas is unknown. Because ideas are limited by experience, and we cannot possibly experience everything that exists in the world, our knowledge is further compromised. However, Locke asserts that though our knowledge is necessarily limited in these ways, we can still be certain of some things. For example, we have an intuitive and immediate knowledge of our own existence, even if we are ignorant of the metaphysical essence of our souls. We also have a demonstrative knowledge of God’s existence, though our understanding cannot fully comprehend who or what he is. We know other things through sensation. We know that our ideas correspond to external realities because the mind cannot invent such things without experience. A blind man, for example, would not be able to form a concept of color. Therefore, those of us who have sight can reason that since we do perceive colors, they must exist.

A Natural Foundation of Reason

Locke argues that God gave us our capacity for reason to aid us in the search for truth. As God’s creations, we know that we must preserve ourselves. To help us, God created in us a natural aversion to misery and a desire for happiness, so we avoid things that cause us pain and seek out pleasure instead. We can reason that since we are all equally God’s children, God must want everyone to be happy. If one person makes another unhappy by causing him pain, that person has rejected God’s will. Therefore, each person has a duty to preserve other people as well as himself. Recognizing the responsibility to preserve the rights of all humankind naturally leads to tolerance, the notion that forms the basis for Locke’s belief in the separation of church and state. If we all must come to discover the truth through reason, then no one man is naturally better able to discover truth than any other man. For this reason, political leaders do not have the right to impose beliefs on the people. Because everything we understand comes through experience and is translated by reason, no outside force can make us understand something in conflict with our own ideas. Locke insists that if men were to follow the government blindly, they would be surrendering their own reason and thus violating God’s law, or natural law.

The Right to Private Property

The right to private property is the cornerstone of Locke’s political theory, encapsulating how each man relates to God and to other men. Locke explains that man originally exists in a state of nature in which he need answer only to the laws of nature. In this state of nature, men are free to do as they please, so long as they preserve peace and preserve mankind in general. Because they have a right to self-preservation, it follows that they have the right to those things that will help them to survive and be happy. God has provided us with all the materials we need to pursue those ends, but these natural resources are useless until men apply their efforts to them. For example, a field is useless until it produces food, and no field will produce food until someone farms it.

Locke proposes that because all men own their bodies completely, any product of their physical labor also belongs to them. Thus, when a man works on some good or material, he becomes the owner of that good or material. The man who farms the land and has produced food owns the land and the food that his labor created. The only restriction to private property is that, because God wants all his children to be happy, no man can take possession of something if he harms another in doing so. He cannot take possession of more than he can use, for example, because he would then be wasting materials that might otherwise be used by another person. Unfortunately, the world is afflicted by immoral men who violate these natural laws. By coming together in the social–political compact of a community that can create and enforce laws, men are guaranteed better protection of their property and other freedoms.

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John Locke Essay Examples and Topics

The government should protect property: opinions of locke and james madison.

“The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.” – John Locke. Throughout his many writings, John Locke covers a diverse range of topics regarding natural rights, the role of government, and social order. However, a common theme that ties all…

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Analysis of the Modern Philosophical Theories of Descartes, Locke and Kant

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Study Analysis on the Examination of Actions of Michael Brutsch Through the Lens of Locke

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Philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke Views on Huma Nature as

Hobbes or Locke? Thomas Hobbes and John Locke both have their own ideas on human nature. But, which of the two has the right idea? According to Hobbes, people are born evil, and if given the chance, they will save themselves rather than others and…

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What is There to Tolerate? In the thoughts of the contemporary advocates of Liberalism, one of the most noticeable and extensive accomplishments of the Early Modern time period is the expression, protection, and justification of civil toleration. During the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth…

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John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Baron De Montesquieu - Their Values and Beliefs

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Descartes and Locke are both considered as two of the primary early modern philosophers in the seventeenth century. Descartes and Locke are both attempting to find an answer to the same questions in epistemology such as what is knowledge and is their certainty in knowledge?…

Best topics on John Locke

1. The Government Should Protect Property: Opinions of Locke and James Madison

2. The Role Of Martin Luther, John Looke, And Voltaire in Changing The Rights Of The People

3. John Locke’s View on Granting Legitimate Political Power

4. Analysis of the Modern Philosophical Theories of Descartes, Locke and Kant

5. Study Analysis on the Examination of Actions of Michael Brutsch Through the Lens of Locke

6. Philosophers, Thomas Hobbes And John Locke Views On Huma Nature As

7. The Earliest Periods Of Education

8. The Life Story of John Locke the English Philosopher and Physician

9. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and the Ideas on Human Nature in Their Works

10. John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Baron de Montesquieu – Their Values and Beliefs

11. The Origins of Nature versus Nurture Debate: Comparison of Empirical and Nativist Views

12. Theories of knowledge of Descartes and Locke

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Essays on John Locke

Aspect analysis of john locke’s social contract theory, a biography of john locke, an english philosopher, john locke and rene descartes: the first early philosophers, theory of knowledge and tabula rasa of john locke, analysis of john locke's tabula rasa theory, fundamental thoughts of the age of enlightenment, reasons of why do we need government, analysis of john locke’s ideology about property and private ownership, how john locke's philosophy is torn between the acceptance and condemnation of slavery, biography of john locke and his works, "the current state of john locke’s theory on knowledge acquisition", john locke’s and rene descartes opinion on human conceptions and knowledge, prerogative power: john locke’s dangerous yet obligatory concession, the concept of identity by john locke, mary wollstonecraft and john locke’s conflicting opinions on financial aid, comparison of john locke and thomas hobbes' philosophies in different areas, comparison of the views of thomas hobbes and john locke on human nature, locke, hobbes, and the federalist papers, locke’s philosophy on the concepts of ‘substance’, ‘nominal essence’ and ‘real essence’, locke’s proof against innate mathematical knowledge, locke and rousseau, lockean ideals in the declaration of independence, locke, blake, and wordsworth: understanding experience, analysis of philosophical opinions on law: hobbes vs. and locke, perceptions of human nature by locke, marx and machiavelli, philosophy of rousseau and locke, comparison of john locke and thomas hobbes in terms of social understanding, analysis of john locke’s idea of tabula rasa, ideas of thomas hobbes and john locke on the relationship between the government and its citizens, a comparative study of hobbes' and locke's political theories, feeling stressed about your essay.

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Free John Locke Essays and Papers

5 Works Cited

John Locke was born on August 29, 1632. He was born in a quaint village, called Wrington, in the county of Somerset, to two Puritan parents. His father was a captain in the English Civil War, and was a country lawyer. With his father being so involved with the English government, Locke was blessed to receive the best education out there. John was enrolled at Westminster School in 1647. The school was located in London. John was honored with the title of King’s Scholar. This title was only awarded

3 Works Cited

John Locke was very influential during the age of the Enlightenment. His writings challenged the philosophies of thinkers of the time, including both Scots and Americans. He was the first person to identify himself through his consciousness. He began to believe that there were endless possibilities of the human mind. John Locke was born in Wrington, England on August 29th, 1632. He grew up in a Puritan household, and he was baptized the day he was born. His family was moved to Pensford shortly after

John Locke was born in Wrington, Somerset, England in 1632. His father was a barrister and a justice of the peace who fought on behalf of the Parliamentary side against Charles I. Locke had a good education, he learned Hebrew and Arabic from Westminster school, then went on to Oxford University where he began to not only question but disagree strongly with the scholastic philosophy being taught. Upon receiving his master’s degree, he began to lecture at Oxford in Greek and Latin. From there, he

John Locke Theory

It all began with John Locke “All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.” These words of John Locke described who he was as a person, and what he pleaded for; making him one of America’s most imperative historical figure. John Locke, America’s most influential philosophe, was a man who significantly influenced America through his theory on Natural Rights. Locke’s theory of Natural Rights has led America to build a government

whimpering. How does the mind of a baby grow to become one of the greatest political philosophers the world has known? From his response to the Puritan upbringing by his father, to “The Reasonableness of Christianity”, which John Locke published just five years before his death, John Locke's life demonstrates how God uses a mind dedicated to honest pursuit of ultimate Truth. On August 9, 1632 he was born in the village of Wrington in Somercast. His father was a country solicitor and small landowner who

John Locke Enlightenment

called John Locke who had ideas on freedom of religion and the rights of citizens and also wrote two books in order to show his points those books are called “Two Treatises of Civil Government” and “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” where he starts to discuss political power, state of nature, difference between state of nature, and state of war, functioning of property and the way the government should be run in the “two treatises of civil government” and for “human understanding” Locke discusses

John Locke and the Enlightenment

This paper is about John Locke who was a philosopher in the 17-century. He was an Englishmen and his ideas formed the basic concept for the government and laws, which later allowed colonist to justify revolution. I agree with what Locke is saying because everybody should be able to have their own freedom and still respect the freedom of other people. John said, “Individuals have rights, and their duties are defined in terms of protecting their own rights and respecting those of others”. This paper

Biography of John Locke

4 Works Cited

John Locke Equality

John Locke is a political philosopher who is known as the Father of Enlightenment. Locke’s scholarly works of the eighteenth century still remains significantly influential in our society today. When Locke discusses the relationship between property and government in, The Two Treaties of Government, he defines property as the protection of people as well as their goods and individuals should have the right to own as much property as they desire. On the other hand, Government should have limited

Essay On John Locke

Tyler Windsor History 102 Steve Stager February-March 2014 John Locke John Locke wrote a government idea in the 17th century that many people today would think is the idea of a fool. He thought that the government needed to stay out of the way of the lives of others and let the natural rights take place. Locke thought that the people were good and could live just fine without the government trying to control their every move. Locke implied the government is intended to be an instrument for the people

John Locke Utilitarianism

States are created on the foundation of rights, and laws are set up to protect the natural rights of citizens. The political philosopher John Locke built his theory of rights based on the idea that every man was created equal, meaning there was no natural hierarchy; therefore, we all have the right to "life, liberty, and property." (Wolff,2016,17.)This line of thinking created the idea of Natual Law that there should be a protection of humans because they are God’s creations. As ideology secularised

John Locke Individualism

States of America was built upon. It consists of the main ideas of liberty and equality for all men. Some of the main principles of liberalism that were used to build the United States came from some of the famous thinkers like Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, and Adam Smith. They all believed in individual liberty was at the heart of liberalism. However, is individual liberty necessarily a good thing as many Americans believe, or are there many problems that are associated with it? Even though those

John Locke and His Philosophies

John Locke, one of the most influential philosophers of his time, was born on August 29, 1632 in Wrington, a small village in England. His father, also named John, had been a lawyer as well as a military man who once served as a captain in the parliamentary army during the English civil war. Locke’s parents were both very devout Puritans and so to no surprise, Locke himself was raised with heavily Puritan beliefs. Because Locke’s father had many connections to the English government at the time

In Chapter five Locke says, that the earth can be used by the people for their survival, protection, or anyway in which they could benefit from it. This is where I got a little confused. So then if everything on the earth belongs to everyone then what is individual property? I read it over and over and I’m not sure if I have the right answer but I’ll try. Everyone owns there own body, and all the work they do they do with their body. When a person works with their body on something that thing becomes

The Blocks of Humanity of John Locke

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(Brainyquotes). John Locke who was a political writer, an Oxford scholar, medical researcher, and physican. He was widley known as the philospher that challanged the flaws of humanity. Being so widely known as an excellent writer in the 17th century, in his piece An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke confronts the flaws of humanity. As a result of being a great writer and philosopher Locke was also raised in a very wealthy setting. Being that he was raised in a very wealthy setting Locke challenges

Business Ethics: John Locke

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Business Ethics: John Locke Business Ethics Business ethics is defined as “a specialized study of moral right and wrong that focusses on moral standards as they apply to business institutions, organizations, and behavior” (Velasquez, 2014, p.15). Business ethics is the study of moral standards that focusses primarily on how these standards may apply to social systems and/or organizations. For this paper I will be focusing on one of the great minds of business ethics, John Locke, his ideas and contributions

John Locke and The Egalitarian Principle

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Considered to be the ‘Father of classical liberalism,’ John Locke established the core values of classical liberalism, which included liberty, individualism, protection of natural rights, consent and constitutionalism. Classical liberalism that developed in the United States focused on a ‘minimal state’ in terms of government restriction while John Locke centralized his focus on the social and political means of the individual. Generally, egalitarianism is defined as “a belief in human equality in

John Locke’s “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”

Philosophy has always been one of the most important and fascinating aspects of human life. Its significance is due to the fact that it develops meanings and values. Moreover, philosophy thus makes the life of individuals complete. The study and evaluation of various philosophical concepts are necessary for a better understanding of everything that surrounds people. That is why this work will be considered the object of John Locke’s essay on human understanding as a source of useful and precious knowledge.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , authored by the philosopher John Locke is one of the most significant works of the seventeenth century. This essay is divided into four parts, which cover various topics. The first part provides proof that there are no innate concepts in the human mind, and the next part provides information about where they actually come from (Mills, 2021). Next, the author examines the meaning of language in cognition. In the last part, the types of knowledge are given, taking into account the faith and opinions of people. Fuller et al. (2019) emphasized that “apart from the discussion of the extent and limits of human knowledge, then it deals with the philosophy of perception, the origins of concepts, the foundations of science, the nature of language, a variety of metaphysical topics, and with morality and religion” (p. 5). The theory of knowledge is a key point in the work of a philosopher.

John Locke is considered to be the receiver of Bacon’s materialistic thought. Focusing on the development of empiricism, the philosopher brought it towards materialistic sensualism. Thus, the author gave his own explanation of the principle of the origin of concepts in the human mind through the sensory world. Locke’s Essay on Human Cognition is a refutation of the philosophical thought of his contemporaries and their predecessors. Those thinkers of those times tended to the theoretical basis of the anti-sensualist and adhered to the side of the theory of knowledge that recognized extrasensory knowledge.

The first argument that Locke’s work is of particular importance is his reflections on the birth of human ideas. So, according to the author, certain concepts cannot be immediately embedded in a person’s mind. All of them are based on the experience experienced through the prism of feelings. The bases for the formation of concepts are simple ideas that a person receives through a practical component. Thus, the mind alone has no way to create and develop an understanding of anything and always depends on experience. This thinking contributed to the development of the concept of “tabula rasa,” or a clean slate (Ali Zaiter, 2018). This aspect of philosophy is inherent only in newborns whose mind does not yet contain any information (MacBlain, 2018). Moral characteristics and views of people are also considered acquired by the author. In support of the argument, Locke says that people in different states have different beliefs from each other.

As already mentioned, Locke accepted simple knowledge as the basis for the formation of ideas. The author claims that they are fundamental parts of the human experience. An example is a chair that is perceived by a person through one sense, through multiple feelings, a reflection, or a combination of these two concepts (Locke, 2019). Thus, the stool is conducted by the individual as brown, through color, or hard, through its function. Such consideration helps to form a complete image of a larger concept. Thus, people acquire certain knowledge through the processes of experience and feelings.

The philosopher also emphasizes in the work that not all components of concepts are sensations. Thus, not all components of the surrounding world, perceived through the senses, are similar to how various things are actually arranged and framed. They are endowed with characteristics such as size, density, or shape, while not having color, smell, or taste. However, they are endowed with the smallest particles, which, when moving and acting on the senses, create a certain sensation. Therefore, such aspects as, for example, the color of an object are a kind of motion of matter. Various kinds of experiences, especially sensory ones, also determine the level of people’s cognition abilities of the world around them. Thus, individuals can realize and form certain concepts in the context of their own sensory perceptions and experiences. They are defined by Locke as closed areas of knowledge that are inaccessible to people.

Since morality is not a natural trait inherent in people, Locke argues that it, like most concepts, is formed with the help of experienced experience and the openness of the human spirit. Moreover, the argument for the validity of this thought is that the philosopher does not accept the universality of moral postulates. The main source of morality, according to Locke, was God. Then, there was a direct human experience that helped people decide what exactly brings both happiness and calm. The last aspect was considered to be the very essence of a person, in which his desire and desires for satisfaction and happiness are embedded. These criteria are an important positive ethical meaning of Locke’s philosophy.

Another important aspect of John Locke’s work is the sensory side of personality experience, which forms concepts. Sensory experience is a source of consciousness containing certain human ideas. Furthermore, many concepts and the very essence of their formation can be explained. To explain them, it is necessary to determine the way in which people form knowledge. Moreover, it is necessary to find an explanation of how certain information appears in consciousness. It can be just through perception, feeling, experience, and observation, which is proof that all knowledge is not innate. Moreover, Locke’s concept of the non-innateness of concepts can also be supported by psychology. Thus, people may simply not realize the ways of forming thoughts and ideas that they believe they already have in their minds. This is due to the lack of awareness of the role played by upbringing, experience, and customs in this process.

Therefore, this work explored the philosophical thought of John Locke as an important aspect of the worldview. In his essay, the author focuses on the main problems of epistemology. He focuses on how people acquire certain knowledge. Moreover, the most important aspect of Locke’s teaching is that he took the position of denying the innateness of concepts, which were promoted by such famous philosophers of those times as Plato and Descartes. Moreover, Locke does not deny the existence of external objects, God, and human existence. In the modern world, the philosopher, the predecessor of Kant, is considered the founder of the newest critical theory of knowledge.

Ali Zaiter, W. (2018). The impact of John Locke’s tabula rasa and Kant’s faculty of intuition on the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats: Implications and applications. AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, 2 (3).

Fuller, G., Stecker, R., & Wright, J. P. (Eds.). (2019). John Locke: En essay concerning human understanding in focus . Routledge.

Locke, J. (2019). An essay concerning human understanding . Creative Media Partners.

MacBlain, S. (2018). Learning theories for early years practice. SAGE.

Mills, R. J. W. (2021). Locke against innatism. The Religious Innatism Debate in Early Modern Britain , 71-76.

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John Locke essay

John Locke (1632-1704) was one of the greatest philosophers in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century. Locke grew up and lived through one of the most extraordinary centuries of English political and intellectual history. Locke is often classified as the first of the great English empiricists. This reputation rests on Locke’s greatest work, the monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. The most important of his goals is to determine the limits of human understanding. Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding was first published in 1690.

It is really the first attempt in the new scientific age to work out a psychological theory. Locke’s views were under influence of two his contemporaries Descartes and Newton. According to Descartes, our knowledge of the world around us is not direct, that means that we know the things only through the relation of these things to something else what we know directly. Descartes believed that perception occurred when physical objects act upon our sense organs, these in turn act upon the brain and, then this provokes a perception in the mind.

Descartes believed that God bestowed us with “innate ideas”, such as mathematics truths, which help us to understand physical world. However, John Locke was the main antagonist to the concept of innate ideas. Locke argued that the mind is in fact devoid of all knowledge or ideas at birth, a blank sheet or tabula rasa. He argued that all ideas do in fact come via empiricism. Locke also attacked the idea that an innate idea can be imprinted on the mind without the owner realizing it.

If to use the song analogy, we may not be able to recall the entire song until we hear the first few words, however we were aware of the fact that we knew the song and that upon hearing the first few words we would be able to recall the rest. Lock would not accept the idea that we can know something yet not know that we knew it. Locke ends his attack upon innate ideas by suggesting that the mind is a tabula rasa and that all ideas come from experience; in that all our knowledge is founded. Locke’s vision of physical world was based upon the assumption described by Newton.

Locke intended to mean by “idea” something much more precise than concept or thought. Locke attempted to present precise definitions of what is an “idea”, thus: a) “It [idea] being that term which I think, serves best to stand for whatsoever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks, I have used it to express ? whatever it is, which the mind can be employed about in thinking” (Essay, Book I, Chapter 1, paragraph 8). b) “Whatsoever ? is the immediate object of perception, thought, or understanding, that I call an idea” (Essay, Book II, Chapter 8, paragraph 8).

But such Locke’s attempted definitions do not tell us what ideas are, they simply tell us how they relate to the mind. We are told, for example, that ideas are “the immediate object of perception”. That is, whenever we perceive anything, what we are immediately aware of is, in Locke’s view, an idea. According to Locke, ideas exist in minds and it must mean that any physical object is in mind, what is not definitely true. So, Locke’s claim that ideas are the immediate object of perception must be treated carefully.

It only gives us a clue of what he meant if we first suppose that the immediate objects of perception are mental entities, not physical ones. Such falseness of trying to define something in terms of its relations rather than by its intrinsic properties one can encounter in psychology. It is called the fallacy of constitutive relations because it is based upon the false view that what something is, can be defined by its relations to other things. For example, some psychologists would define “ability”, such as verbal ability, as how good one is in using words or verbal concepts.

But verbal ability is that feature of our mind that causes our verbal performance. It is not that performance itself. Defining it in terms of performance defines it in terms of what it causes, not in terms of what it is. We have not defined anything until we have said what it is. Part of our problem in trying to understand Locke is that he does not tell us exactly what ideas are. If all we know in the first instance are ideas and if everything we know is based upon these ideas, then the very concept of something which is not an idea in our minds, would be a concept impossible for us to understand.

Descartes could say that we innately have the concept of something that is not an idea in our minds. By his rejection of innate ideas, Locke got into a vicious circle. So we cannot speculate that there is a world beyond our ideas because according to Locke all we ever experience are ideas. Thus, the concept of something beyond the circle of ideas is a concept that we could never form or comprehend. If Locke is right, then we are trapped behind the veil of ideas and cannot ever know that we are trapped. If Locke’s theory were true, we could not understand it.

Worse than that, we could not even coherently formulate it. Locke always talks of ideas of this or that, e. g. , ideas of white or ideas of circularity. When he wants to mention an idea, he only ever describes it as the idea of something. His ideas are always ideas of the sorts of qualities we find from the common sense perspective in the physical world. As a result, the term idea is deprived of its intrinsic feature. So characterized idea becomes totally incoherent, for it has no intrinsic character, only relations.

It is always a relative or relational feature because it always points to something else. Franz Brentano (1874), the Austrian philosopher and psychologist, called it intentionality. As a result, if an idea is a phenomenal entity located in the mind, then in being aware of it alone, we can only be aware of its intrinsic character. If we have no other access to physical qualities, we can never know the relationship between ideas and what they are ideas of. The flaws of Locke’s theory have influence on modern psychology which is overfull with such theories.

For example, theories that talk of cognitive “representations” in the mind or brain and suppose that such representations are the immediate objects of experience make the same mistake as Locke did. Such theories penetrate almost the entire area of modern psychology. Many see the concept of representation as indispensable. Representational theories not only make knowledge of the external world impossible; they make any concept of an external world incomprehensible.

References.

T. H. Leahey (2004). A History of Psychology (6th edition). Prentice Hall.

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Essay Service Examples Philosophy John Locke

Strengths And Weaknesses Of Viewpoint Of John Locke

John Locke was born on August 22, 1632, in Wrington, Somerset, a small village in England. Locke grew up with both parents Puritans and as such, he was raised that way. His religion believed that everyone was born into a state of nature and that everyone had the right to pursue happiness. His father’s connections and allegiance to the English government allowed Locke to receive an impeccable education. Throughout his childhood, he was homeschooled. He then had the opportunity to attend Westminster high school furthering his education at the Christ Church of the University of Oxford. At Oxford, Locke studied medicine, which played a heavy role in his future as he soon thereafter became a physician. He also studied philosophy, learning the classical material of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle, however finding the works of more modern philosophers like Descartes, more intriguing. Although growing up in a household of Puritans, Locke had a more liberal standpoint on life. Locke became a teacher at Christ Church, but his dislike of theology and his interest in medicine and science caused him to follow the advice of his scientific mentor Robert Boyle, who recommended that Locke concentrate on scientific research instead. In the summer of 1667, Locke befriended Anthony Ashley Cooper; the Earl of Shaftsbury, and was hired as his physician. As the Earl was involved in the government, this helped Locke integrate into the role as a government official charged with collecting information about trade and colonies which later helped him become an economic writer, a political activist, and a revolutionary whose cause triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Having varying stances on important topics, Locke became a highly influential philosopher, writing essays and treatises on topics such as political philosophy, education, and the government. Many of Locke’s writings helped found modern western philosophy and he became known as the father of classical liberalism. He is best known for his three works; Essay Concerning Human Understanding where he discussed the principle of religion, morality, and science, The Letter Concerning Toleration which pertained to the separation of the church and the state and The Second Treatise on Civil Government where he challenged the law of Divine Right of Kings by arguing that sovereignty resided in the people. In 1704, Locke died from a decline in his health after living a long and fulfilling life in Essex, England.

Locke’s Philosophy on Law

John Locke was a strong believer in natural law. He strongly believed in natural rights; rights that cannot be restrained by human-enacted laws and were therefore universal and inalienable. These rights should be protected in the constitution, falling under the boundaries of positive law.

He believed that humans, who were god’s property were entitled by god to the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. Locke believed in the existence of natural law and held it to the best indicator of what was considered ‘right’. He held to the fact that people were decent beings and were prone to being naturally good and peaceful, however, Locke knew that a social contract was needed because he knew that at times, people could be selfish. Locke believed that the ownership of property was created by the application of labor to achieve it, and humans make objects into their property by applying labor. When someone picked an apple, it was theirs, when someone found gold, it was theirs and so thus, anyone who worked for something was entitled to own the outcome. Locke believed that property laws existed naturally before the formation of the social contract and that property preceded government. Thus the government cannot “dispose of the estates of the subjects arbitrarily” (Locke, Second Treatise) and shouldn’t be allowed to infringe on an individual’s right to own property or obstruct the use of it. Even nowadays, in modern society, people still feel strongly about their right to property. For example, one phrase that John Locke would have supported is “Do you have a search warrant?” which would prevent the authorities from barging into private property and taking an individual’s property without reason. To add on, Locke believed that people should be free to do as they pleased and the government should only intervene when it is necessary to protect someone/someone’s property. The government cannot arbitrarily act to infringe people’s rights and freedoms and thus believed in minimal government involvement. He used that claim to justify the idea of a single legitimate government as the result of a social contract where people in the state of nature would freely transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property. However, this was only conditionally as if the people did not feel that the government was doing its duties, they had the moral duty and right to withdraw the governmental power from the government to either themselves or to a better replacement.

Locke wrote The Second Treatise on Civil Government (also known as the Social Contract) which talked about natural rights and the role of the government. This was highly influential on Thomas Jefferson in terms of forming the basis for the Declaration of Independence as well as the civil rights granted by the US Constitution. In regards to the government, Locke thought that the government consisting of the monarchy, Parliament, and church was too powerful at that time. He supported the idea of the separation of the different powers of the monarchy, Parliament, and the church and proposed that there should be a public authority that should enforce laws instead of the government. Through this, he hoped that people would more say in the creation of laws than just everyone listening blindly to the state. His ideas on the government heavily influenced, both the American and French Revolutions, and his ideas of people’s rights and the role of civil government provided strong support for the intellectual movements of both revolutions. He also believed in secularism with his essays on religious tolerance within the government providing an early outline for the separation of church and state. Adding on, Locke felt that when you violate someone else’s natural rights, you forfeit your own rights. If an individual did so, they should be punished by the people- not the state and the punishment should seek restitution for the victim, and deter the crime from happening again. Later on, he thought of the idea of an impartial judge with the authority to determine the severity of the crime and to set a punishment proportionate to the crime, according to the established law would help the legal system be fairer. Furthermore, Locke believed in ‘Tabula Rasa’ which means Blank Slate in Latin. This theory stated that every individual born, was born with no prior knowledge, destiny, or concept of human behavior. This went against most views of the 17th century as many believed that one was born with their fate already determined by God. Locke argued that all perception of human behavior is formed after birth via the senses and therefore everyone was created equal. Regarding religion, Locke stated that people had no right to judge the truths of religion because humans did not know the absolute truth. He argued as religion was against violence, the religious wars occurring in his era in accordance with religion were wrong. Locke, however, supported the idea of letting people believe in their own religion as it would help keep order in society. In today’s society, we see a lot of Locke’s views on our laws.

Like all theories, Locke’s philosophy was both heavily praised and critiqued revealing its many strengths as well as its flaws. Many of the strengths of Locke’s philosophy of law come from natural law. In natural law, it is believed that law is made for the common good and similarly, Canada’s legal system incorporates this within our society and tries to treat every citizen equally. However, as Locke believed in natural law, he also believed in a social contract as he knew that while it is good, there is also bad. This can also be seen within our society and justice system as while laws are put into place to prevent people from stealing, it is common knowledge and an unspoken rule that if it isn’t yours, then you wouldn’t take it. This is an example of natural law and how people are inherently good, however, there are instances where people would disregard this and see something lying around that isn’t theirs and take it. This is why Locke also believed in the aspect of positive law; to deter people from committing these unlawful actions. Locke was also praised for this work Second Treatise of Government, which influenced many laws around the world. For instance, The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 7 states: ‘Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.’ And in 1948, Canada signed the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17 of which reads: Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.” Many other western countries followed in creating laws regarding Locke’s philosophy on the law. Locke also believed in the pursuit of happiness that everyone was born in a state of nature and given the opportunity to achieve happiness. No one can stop another person from achieving their own happiness as long as it doesn’t cause harm to other people. For example, if a person wanted to marry a person of their own gender, same-marriage, they should be able to, even if it went against Locke’s personal beliefs, as an individual should pursue their happiness. Additionally, Locke’s idea of separating powers is used in our current day legal system. He believed that the legislative power should be divided between the monarch and the parliament and that no one should have absolute authority. His philosophy can be seen in our modern-day government as the powers of government are divided between municipal, provincial, and federal with the monarch also playing a role. However, every system has its flaws. Locke’s theories had just as many weaknesses as their strengths.

Locke believed in the system of majority rules seen through his belief in an election of the government in which many would be happy. He believed that the views of the majority of the population overruled the opinions of the minority’s which can be a con unto itself as this could be unfair to some of the minority groups, who wouldn’t get to have their opinion heard at all. Even if the majority voted for an idea, it also doesn’t mean that the idea is necessarily correct or morally right. For example, when Hilter commandeered the Holocaust, many of the German citizens at the beginning thought that blaming the Jews for all the wrongs of Germany was a good idea. With many of these Germans citizens, non- Jewish, in favor of retaliation against the Jews, the Jewish people who were the minority had no say in the decision at all. Thus, it can be seen that while the majority ruled theory was followed, it was not necessarily right. He also believed in minimal government involvement, which also had its downfalls as then people would have to govern themselves, which related to his belief in natural law. However, it can be seen in modern society that it cannot be assumed that all individuals are good, as people have different morals. Government involvement in civil matters also ensured that everyone was treated equally and equity was present. As not all citizens have the same social standing and some need help more than others, the government help provides food stamps, community housing, etc. Taxes based on social standing and funded programs for the needy helped out people that were in need of help. With Locke’s ideology, it was believed that people would just naturally help each other out in times of need, however with not everyone being naturally selfless and kind, many people are left behind in times of need. Thus, with active government involvement, it is ensured that people are treated equally and that everyone benefits in society. Furthermore, regarding Locke’s views on letting people control how people were punished for the crimes they’ve committed, and not having a higher power set our guidelines for the offense, punishments would vary in terms of severity for similar crimes with no precedence to make the punishment standard.

Locke’s Position on Assisted Suicide

Locke would support the idea of assisted suicide, according to his philosophical ideas. First off, he strongly believed in the right to property and one’s body is self property. Thus, it can be said that an individual should be able to make their own decision to willfully die as they possess ownership of their own body. Furthermore, Locke believed in the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. and the fact that people suffer from terminal illnesses is no happiness to them, it is inhumane to deny someone a humane way to die peacefully. As long as people are capable of making the decision, they should have the right to decide whether they want to live or die and choose what is best for them. For example, regarding the Rodriguez v. British Columbia case, Locke would’ve been on the side of Sue Rodriguez, who was a woman suffering from ALS and had requested the right to assisted suicide with the help of a physician. She has argued that the prohibition of assisted suicide violated section 7 of the charter which states that ‘Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ which is what Locke had, in fact, created. Ultimately, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that this law would remain as it was and euthanasia in Canada remained illegal up until 2016, where the Supreme court finally ruled that the prohibition of euthanasia was unconstitutional. Locke’s stance on this would reflect that Sue was not happy and that her pursuit of happiness was a right that she had. If she was suffering away the rest of her life, then there was no reason to live. Furthermore, he would’ve stated that the decision for her euthanasia was not up to the government- The Supreme Court- as Locke believed in minimal government involvement and that the government shouldn’t infringe on an individual’s right to property, in which Sue’s body was her own property. As stated by Locke, “We are free to do those things which we both will to do and are physically capable of doing” (Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding) and this argument can be applied in regards to the controversial issue of assisted suicide.

Locke’s Stance on Civil Disobedience

John Locke would have supported the idea of civil disobedience to its full extent. He believed that civil society was a contract. The people would give up some of their individual rights and surrender certain freedoms enjoyed under the state of nature, in return for the government’s protection and guarantee of life, liberty, and property; exercised according to the rule of law. However, if the government failed to protect these rights, acted against the interests of the citizens, and instead infringed on people’s rights, then the contract established was void. If this contract was broken, the people then were morally obligated and had the right to revolt and overthrow the government, replacing it with one that would better reflect society’s needs as they see fit. He believed that citizens would be able to withdraw their obligation to obey through elections or any other means necessary, which would include rebellions and violence. Thus, while Locke would wholeheartedly support the idea of civil disobedience, if civil disobedience did not yield the right results, Locke would want to take it two steps further and use further means such as violence to achieve the intended results. He believed that the right of revolution essentially acts as a safeguard against tyranny and should always be an option.

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When reading on who might be the one person who had made the biggest contribution to how law and justice are seen today, I chose John Locke. John Locke is one of the most influential philosophers of our modern time (Tuckerness, 2016). John Locke was an English Philosopher, whose contributions to law and justice and the government changed the modern era for the better. The events and time when he was growing, really shaped the way he thought, and the...

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John Locke
John Locke (b. 1632, d. 1704) was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. Locke's monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great defenses of modern empiricism and concerns itself with determining the limits of human understanding in respect to a wide spectrum of topics. It thus tells us in some detail what one can legitimately claim ...
John Locke
John Locke See all media Born: August 29, 1632 England Died: October 28, 1704 (aged 72) England Notable Works: "A Letter Concerning Toleration" "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" "Essays on the Law of Nature" "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" "The Reasonableness of Christianity" "Two Tracts on Government" "Two Treatises of Government" ...
2023 Essay Competition
The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories, and a junior category for under 15s, and then select an overall 'best essay' across the seven subjects: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law. Philosophy Q1. A team of scientists wants to discover how many genders there are.
John Locke
Locke famously wrote that man has three natural rights: life, liberty and property. In his "Thoughts Concerning Education" (1693), Locke argued for a broadened syllabus and better treatment of...
Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government: Suggested Essay Topics
Suggested Essay Topics Does Locke's concern with protection of property as one of the central purposes of civil society contradict his work in defense of universal human rights? What appear to be the assumptions about human nature on which Locke bases his depiction of the state of nature?
John Locke
Locke begins the Essay by repudiating the view that certain kinds of knowledge—knowledge of the existence of God, of certain moral truths, or of the laws of logic or mathematics —are innate, imprinted on the human mind at its creation.
Complete Guide To John Locke Essay Competition
The overarching themes of the competitions are: philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology, and law. For 2022, the questions for John Locke Essay Competition are: Philosophy Q1. How likely is the multiverse? Would it change anything if (somehow) we came to know the theory was true? Q2.
Free Essays on John Locke, Examples, Topics, Outlines
Essays on John Locke note that philosophy is oriented towards humans and their life. He believed that the purpose of philosophy in the development of means for a person to achieve happiness. Locke established a sensory-based method of learning - empiricism.
John Locke Essays: Examples, Topics, Titles, & Outlines
John Locke and Two Treatises of Government Locke's Conception of the State of Nature vs. The State of War In "Two Treatises of Government" Locke strives to present the notion that a government grounded in the consent of the populace does not necessarily "lay a foundation for perpetual disorder and mischief, Tumult, Sedition and ebellion"(Book II, Chapter I, Sec.25).
John locke Essay Topics For Free
John Locke believed that the government was small. He said government should be like a contract; if the government abusses its position, citizens will overthrow the government. He also argued that people had the right to be heard. He said that people are born healthy. Everyone, regardless of gender, colour, religion, sex, etc., have the same rights as all others. I think John Locke supports ...
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a work by John Locke concerning the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. It first appeared in 1689 (although dated 1690) with the printed title An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding.He describes the mind at birth as a blank slate (tabula rasa, although he did not use those actual words) filled later through experience.
2022 Prize Winners
2022 Essay Prize Winners Congratulations to the 2022 shortlisted candidates, all of whom were awarded a Commendation. Below are lists of prizewinners and recipients of High Commendations, which are awarded to the writers of the best of the shortlisted essays. GRAND PRIZE Benjamin Who, The Hotchkiss School, USA Junior Prize
According To John Locke What Fundamental Element Made Government
According to John Locke, the fundamental element that made government legitimate is the consent of the people. This can be seen in his Second Treatise of Government. In this work, Locke argues that all governments must be based on the consent of those governed. The purpose of government is to protect the rights of citizens and ensure they are ...
Essay on John Locke
Essay On John Locke John Locke; born on August 29, 1632, lived up to his life. His work is still remembered to this day even with his death on October 28, 1704. "We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the color of our moral character, from those who are around us." John Locke said himself.
A-Level Case Studies On John Locke's Social Contract Theory
Locke also speaks of liberty, where people were independent and equal. There was no government to punish people for what they did against the law was not a state without morality. It was pre-political but not pre-moral. People considered each other as equal since they were all bound by the legislation of nature.
John Locke (1634-1704): Themes, Arguments, and Ideas
Locke defines knowledge as the connection and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy, of the ideas humans form. From this definition it follows that our knowledge does not extend beyond the scope of human ideas. In fact, it would mean that our knowledge is even narrower than this description implies, because the connection between most ...
John Locke Essay Examples and Topics at Eduzaurus
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and the Ideas on Human Nature in Their Works. 9. John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Baron de Montesquieu - Their Values and Beliefs. 10. The Origins of Nature versus Nurture Debate: Comparison of Empirical and Nativist Views. 11. The Life Story of John Locke the English Philosopher and Physician. 12.
≡Essays on John Locke. Free Examples of Research Paper Topics, Titles
John Locke argues that we should study our place in the natural world to shape our system of ethics and politics. The most natural of human behaviors is avoiding pain and seeking pleasure which means that people are naturally selfish sometimes. He also asserts that... John Locke Famous Person Social Contract Theory
Free John Locke Essays and Papers
In this essay I argue that the late philosopher Locke has the most compelling theory of metaphysics. First, I explain Locke's point that all humans are born as Tabula Rasa, in order to gain basic understanding of where Locke begins his theory.
John Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding"
John Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" Topic: Philosophy Words: 1096 Pages: 4 Oct 18th, 2022 Philosophy has always been one of the most important and fascinating aspects of human life. Its significance is due to the fact that it develops meanings and values. Moreover, philosophy thus makes the life of individuals complete.
John Locke Essay Examples
John Locke Essays 3 samples found essays on this Topic General OVERVIEW Subject: Famous Person Pages: 3 Words: 1196 Rating: 5,0 Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and the Syrian conflict The Syrian conflict has indeed become one of the most important and urgent issues of the whole international community because it is believed to have a…
John Locke essay Essay
Free Essays. John Locke (1632-1704) was one of the greatest philosophers in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century. Locke grew up and lived through one of the most extraordinary centuries of English political and intellectual history. Locke is often classified as the first of the great English empiricists.
Strengths And Weaknesses Of Viewpoint Of John Locke
Locke's Philosophy on Law. John Locke was a strong believer in natural law. He strongly believed in natural rights; rights that cannot be restrained by human-enacted laws and were therefore universal and inalienable. These rights should be protected in the constitution, falling under the boundaries of positive law.
The Two Intellectual Worlds of John Locke (Yolton) VG HC in DJ
Yolton offers a topnotch analysis of the essay that should help considerably in disassociating Locke from that pantheon."-Choice 42:10, June 2005, "This is a fascinating and provocative new book by the long-standing dean of Locke scholars worldwide. John W. Yolton explores some unfamiliar topics, including Locke's views of angels, souls, and ...