Locke: Political WritingsJohn Locke's Second Treatise of Government (c. 1681) is perhaps the key founding liberal text. A Letter Concerning Toleration, written in 1685 (a year when a Catholic monarch came to the throne of England and Louis XVI unleashed a reign of terror against Protestants in France), is a classic defense of religious freedom. Yet many of Locke's other writings--not least the Constitutions of Carolina, which he helped draft--are almost defiantly anti-liberal in outlook. This comprehensive collection brings together the main published works (excluding polemical attacks on other people's views) with the most important surviving evidence from among Locke’s papers relating to his political philosophy. David Wootton's wide-ranging and scholarly Introduction sets the writings in the context of their time, examines Locke's developing ideas and unorthodox Christianity, and analyzes his main arguments. The result is the first fully rounded picture of Locke’s political thought in his own words. |
From inside the book
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... claim to any inalienable rights. A few years ago it was a remarkable fact that there was hardly a country in the world that did not claim to be a democracy or to be on the road to democracy (Dunn 1979). The exceptions (e.g. Kuwait ...
... claim that Locke was not only a historical anachronism, but that he had had little impact on history (Dunn 1969b). This argument was much reinforced by J. G. A. Pocock's The Machiavellian Moment (1975), which argued that the major ...
... claims that he was a party propagandist. These disagreements about what Locke was actually saying can be resolved only by clarifying the context in which he was saying it, by finding out what Locke took for granted and did not think it ...
... claiming that rulers must ultimately be answerable to their subjects to maintaining that subjects could not be bound ... claim was that Adam was owner of the world and monarch of all his descendants; that the powers of kings and fathers ...
... claim that the principle of hereditary succession had been established by divine law seemed directly relevant to the conflicts of the day. In 1680 and the years immediately following it, in the midst of the Exclusion Crisis and the Tory ...
Contents
1 | |
5 | |
Suggestions for Further Reading | 123 |
A Note on the Texts | 131 |
Letter to SH Henry Stubbe midSeptember? 1659 | 137 |
Letter to Tom 20 October 1659 | 139 |
From Question Whether the civil magistrate may lawfully impose and determine the use of indifferent things in reference to religious worship | 141 |
Preface to the Reader from the First Tract on Government | 146 |
The Idea We Have of God Journal 1 August 1680 | 237 |
Inspiration Journal 3 April 1681 | 238 |
Virtus 1681 from the 1661 Commonplace Book | 240 |
From The First Treatis of Government c 1681 | 242 |
Two Sorts of Knowledge Journal 26 June 1681 | 259 |
The Second Treatise of Government An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government c 1681 | 261 |
Letter to Edward Clarke 27 January6 February 1685 | 387 |
A Letter Concerning Toleration 1685 | 390 |
Question Can the civil magistrate specify indifferent things to be included within the order of divine worship? | 152 |
Question Is each mans private interest the foundation of the law of nature? | 177 |
Letter to the Hon Robert Boyle 1222 December 166 | 184 |
An Essay Concerning Toleration 1667 | 186 |
The Fundamental Consitutions of Carolina 1669 | 210 |
Philanthropy or The Christian Philosophers 1675 | 232 |
Obligation of Penal Laws Journal 25 February 1676 | 234 |
Law Journal 21 April 1678 | 236 |
Letter to Edward Clarkc 29 January8 February 1689 | 436 |
Preface to Two Treatises of Government 1689 | 438 |
Labour 1693 from the 1661 Commonplace Book | 440 |
Venditio 1695 from the 1661 Commonplace Book | 442 |
Draft of a Representation Containing a Scheme of Methods for the Employment of the Poor | 446 |
Bibliography | 462 |
Index | 471 |