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John Locke

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Philosophers

   Western Philosophers
   17th-century philosophy
   (Modern Philosophy)
   John Locke
   Name: John Locke
   Birth: August 29, 1632 ( Wrington, Somerset, England)
   Death: October 28, 1704 ( Essex, England)
   School/tradition: British Empiricism, Social contract, Natural law
   Main interests: Metaphysics, Epistemology, Political philosophy,
   philosophy of mind, Education
   Notable ideas: tabula rasa, "government with the consent of the
   governed"; state of nature; rights of life, liberty and property
   Influences: Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Grotius, Descartes, Hooker,
   Hobbes, Cyrus
   Influenced: Hume, Kant, and many political philosophers after him,
   especially the American Founding Fathers, Arthur Schopenhauer

   John Locke ( August 29, 1632 – October 28, 1704) was an influential
   English philosopher. In epistemology, Locke has often been classified
   as a British Empiricist, along with David Hume and George Berkeley. He
   is equally important as a social contract theorist, as he developed an
   alternative to the Hobbesian state of nature and argued a government
   could only be legitimate if it received the consent of the governed
   through a social contract and protected the natural rights of life,
   liberty, and estate. If such consent was not given, argued Locke,
   citizens had a right of rebellion. Locke is one of the few major
   philosophers who became a minister of government.

   Locke's ideas had an enormous influence on the development of political
   philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential
   Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His
   writings, along with those of many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers,
   influenced the American revolutionaries as reflected in the American
   Declaration of Independence.

Life

   Locke's father, also named John Locke, was a country lawyer and clerk
   to the Justices of the Peace in Chew Magna, who had served as a captain
   of cavalry for the Parliamentarian forces during the early part of the
   English Civil War. His mother, Agnes Keene, was a tanner's daughter who
   was reputed to be very beautiful. Both parents were Puritans.

   Locke was born on August 29, 1632, in a small thatched cottage by the
   church in Wrington, Somerset, about twelve miles from Bristol. He was
   baptised the same day. Soon after Locke's birth, the family moved to
   the market town of Pensford, about seven miles south of Bristol, where
   Locke grew up in a rural Tudor house in Belluton.

   In 1647, Locke was sent to the prestigious Westminster School in London
   under the sponsorship of Alexander Popham, a member of Parliament and
   former commander of the younger Locke's father. After completing his
   studies there, he was admitted to Christ Church college at Oxford
   University. The dean of the college at the time was John Owen,
   vice-chancellor of the university. Although a capable student, Locke
   was irritated by the undergraduate curriculum of the time. He found
   reading modern philosophers, such as René Descartes, more interesting
   than the classical material taught at the university. Through his
   friend Richard Lower whom he knew from the Westminster School, Locke
   was introduced to medicine and the experimental philosophy being
   pursued at other universities and in the English Royal Society, of
   which he eventually became a member.

   Locke was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1656 and a master's degree in
   1658. He obtained a bachelor of medicine in 1674, having studied
   medicine extensively during his time at Oxford and worked with such
   noted scientists and thinkers as Robert Boyle, Thomas Willis, Robert
   Hooke and Richard Lower. In 1666, he met Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st
   Earl of Shaftesbury, who had come to Oxford seeking treatment for a
   liver infection. Cooper was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to
   become part of his retinue.

   Locke had been looking for a career and in 1667 moved into
   Shaftesbury's home at Exeter House in London, to serve as Lord Ashley's
   personal physician. In London, Locke resumed his medical studies under
   the tutelage of Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham had a major impact on Locke's
   natural philosophical thinking — an impact that would become evident in
   the An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

   Locke's medical knowledge was soon put to the test, since Shaftesbury's
   liver infection became life-threatening. Locke coordinated the advice
   of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading
   Shaftesbury to undergo an operation (then life-threatening itself) to
   remove the cyst. Shaftesbury survived and prospered, crediting Locke
   with saving his life.

   It was in Shaftesbury's household, during 1671, that the meeting took
   place, described in the Epistle to the reader of the Essay, which was
   the genesis of what would later become Essay. Two extant Drafts still
   survive from this period. It was also during this time that Locke
   served as Secretary of the Board of Trade and Plantations and Secretary
   to the Lords and Proprietors of the Carolinas, helping to shape his
   ideas on international trade and economics.

   Shaftesbury, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence
   on Locke's political ideas. Locke became involved in politics when
   Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor in 1672. Following Shaftesbury's
   fall from favour in 1675, Locke spent some time travelling across
   France. He returned to England in 1679 when Shaftesbury's political
   fortunes took a brief positive turn. It was around this time, most
   likely at Shaftesbury's prompting, that Locke composed the bulk of the
   Two Treatises on Government. Locke wrote the Treatises to defend the
   Glorious Revolution of 1688, but also to counter the absolutist
   political philosophy of Sir Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes. Though
   Locke was associated with the influential Whigs, his ideas about
   natural rights and government are today considered quite revolutionary
   for that period in English history.

   However, Locke fled to the Netherlands in 1683, under strong suspicion
   of involvement in the Rye House Plot (though there is little evidence
   to suggest that he was directly involved in the scheme). In the
   Netherlands Locke had time to return to his writing, spending a great
   deal of time re-working the Essay and composing the Letter on
   Toleration. Locke did not return home until after the Glorious
   Revolution. Locke accompanied William of Orange's wife back to England
   in 1688. The bulk of Locke's publishing took place after his arrival
   back in England - the Essay, the Two Treatises and A Letter Concerning
   Toleration all appearing in quick succession upon his return from
   exile.

   His close friend, Lady Masham invited Locke to join her at the Masham's
   country house in Essex. He spent his time there in variable health
   owing to asthma attacks, nevertheless becoming an intellectual hero of
   the Whigs. During this period he discussed matters with such figures as
   John Dryden and Isaac Newton.

   He died in 1704 after a prolonged decline in health, and is buried in
   the churchyard of the village of High Laver, east of Harlow in Essex,
   where he had lived in the household of Sir Francis Masham since 1691.
   Locke never married nor had any children.

   Events that happened during Locke's lifetime include the English
   Restoration, the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London.
   He did not quite see the Act of Union of 1707, though the thrones of
   England and Scotland were held by the same monarch throughout his
   lifetime. Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy were in
   their infancy during Locke's time.

Influence

   Locke exercised a profound influence on subsequent philosophy and
   politics, in particular on liberalism. He was a strong influence on
   Voltaire, while his arguments concerning liberty and the social
   contract later influenced the written works of Alexander Hamilton,
   James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers of the
   United States.

   Appraisals of Locke have often been tied to appraisals of liberalism in
   general, and also to appraisals of the United States. Detractors note
   that he was a major investor in the English slave-trade through the
   Royal Africa Company, as well as through his participation in drafting
   the Fundamental Constitution of the Carolinas while Shaftesbury's
   secretary, which established a feudal aristocracy and gave a master
   absolute power over his slaves. Some see his statements on unenclosed
   property as having justified the displacement of the Native Americans.
   Because of his opposition to aristocracy and slavery in his major
   writings, he is accused of hypocrisy, or of caring only for the liberty
   of English capitalists. Most American liberal scholars reject these
   criticisms, however, questioning the extent of his impact upon the
   Fundamental Constitution and his detractors' interpretations of his
   work in general.

Theory of property

   Locke uses the word property in both broad and narrow senses. In a
   broad sense, it covers a wide range of human interests and aspirations;
   more narrowly, it refers to material goods. He argues property is a
   natural right and it is derived from labour.

   Scholars believe that Karl Marx later adapted Locke's theory on
   property in his philosophies. He also had an influence on the US
   Constitution in the Preamble. John Locke had the thought that all men
   had the natural rights of life, liberty, and property (the latter was
   replaced by "the pursuit of happiness" during negotiations of the
   drafting of the US Declaration of Independence, as a way to negate
   slaves' right to property). He also developed the Lockeian social
   contract which included the state of nature, government with the
   consent of the governed and all the natural instincts.

Political theory

   Unlike Thomas Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature is characterized
   by reason and tolerance. Like Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature
   allowed men to be selfish and lustful. This is apparent with the
   introduction of currency. In a natural state all people were equal and
   independent, and none had a right to harm another’s “life, health,
   liberty, or possessions.” Locke never refers to Hobbes by name,
   however, and may instead have been responding to other writers of the
   day. Locke also advocated governmental checks and balances and believed
   that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some
   circumstances. These ideas would come to have profound influence on the
   Constitution of the United States and its Declaration of Independence.

The Labour theory of property

   Locke believed that the natural right of [property] is created by the
   application of [labor] on it. According to his theory, humans make
   objects into property by applying labor. In this view, the labor
   involved provides the natural right of ownership if the object labored
   upon was formerly common property available to all. In addition,
   property precedes government and government cannot "dispose of the
   estates of the subjects arbitrarily."

Limits to accumulation

   • Labour creates property, but it also contains limits to its
   accumulation: man’s capacity to produce and man’s capacity to consume.
   These limits are considered to prevent goods from being spoiled, or
   wasted.

   • Goods of greater durability are introduced, those exposed to quick
   spoilage can be exchanged for something that lasts longer, for example:
   plums for nuts, nuts for a piece of metal…

   • The introduction of money marks the culmination of this process.
   Money makes possible the unlimited accumulation of property without
   causing waste through spoilage. He also includes gold or silver as
   money because they may be “hoarded up without injury to anyone,” since
   they do not spoil or decay in the hands of the possessor.

   • The introduction of money eliminates the limits of accumulation and
   inequality. Locke stresses that inequality has come about by tacit
   agreement on the use of money, not by the social contract establishing
   civil society or the law of land regulating property.

   • He is aware of a problem posed by unlimited accumulation but does not
   consider it his task. He just implies that government would function to
   moderate the conflict between the unlimited accumulation of property
   and a more nearly equal distribution of wealth and does not say which
   principles that government should apply to solve this problem.

   • However, not all elements of his thought form a consistent whole. For
   example, labour theory of value of the Two Treatises of Government
   stands side by side with the demand-and-supply theory developed in the
   Considerations. Moreover, Locke anchors property in labour but in the
   end upholds the unlimited accumulation of wealth.

Locke on value and price theory

   • Locke’s general theory of value and price is a supply and demand
   theory.

   • Supply is quantity and demand is rent.

   • “The price of any commodity rises or falls by the proportion of the
   number of buyer and sellers.” and “that which regulates the price...
   [of goods] is nothing else but their quantity in proportion to their
   rent.”

   • The quantity theory of money forms a special case of this general
   theory. His idea is based on “money answers all things” (Ecclesiastes)
   or “rent of money is always sufficient, or more than enough,” and
   “varies very little…”

   • Regardless of whether the demand for money is unlimited or constant,
   Locke concludes that as far as money is concerned, the demand is
   exclusively regulated by its quantity.

   • He also investigates the determinants of demand and supply. For
   supply, goods in general are considered valuable because they can be
   exchanged, consumed and they must be scarce. For demand, goods are in
   demand because they yield a flow of income.

   • Locke develops an early theory of capitalization, such as land, which
   has value because “by its constant production of saleable commodities
   it brings in a certain yearly income.”

   • Demand for money is almost the same as demand for goods or land; it
   depends on whether money is wanted as medium of exchange or as loanable
   funds. For medium of exchange “money is capable by exchange to procure
   us the necessaries or conveniences of life.” For loanable funds, “it
   comes to be of the same nature with land by yielding a certain yearly
   income … or interest.”

Monetary thoughts

   Locke distinguishes two functions of money, as a "counter" to measure
   value, and as a "pledge" to lay claim to goods. He believes that silver
   and gold, as opposed to paper money, are the appropriate currency for
   international transactions. Silver and gold, he says, are treated to
   have equal value by all of humanity and can thus be treated as a pledge
   by anyone, while the value of paper money is only valid under the
   government which issues it.

   Locke argues that a country should seek a favorable balance of trade,
   lest it fall behind other countries and suffer a loss in its trade.
   Since the world money stock grows constantly, a country must constantly
   seek to enlarge its own stock.

   He does not consider low prices a welcome stimulus to exports. If M is
   rising, P could only remain stable if T is to increase.

   Locke develops his theory of foreign exchanges, in addition to
   commodity movements, there are also movements in country stock of
   money, and movements of capital determine exchange rates. The latter is
   less significant and less volatile than commodity movements. As for a
   country’s money stock, if it is large relative to that of other
   countries, it will cause the country’s exchange to rise above par, as
   an export balance would do.

   He also prepares estimates of the cash requirements for different
   economic groups (landholders, labourers and brokers). In each group the
   cash requirements are closely related to the length of the pay period.
   He argues the brokers – middlemen – whose activities enlarge the
   monetary circuit and whose profits eat into the earnings of labourers
   and landholders.

List of major works

     * (1689) A Letter Concerning Toleration
          + (1690) A Second Letter Concerning Toleration
          + (1692) A Third Letter for Toleration
     * (1689) Two Treatises of Government
     * (1689) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
     * (1693) Some Thoughts Concerning Education
     * (1695) The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the
       Scriptures
          + (1695) A Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity

Major unpublished or posthumous manuscripts

     * (1660) First Tract on Government (or the English Tract)
     * (c.1662) Second Tract on Government (or the Latin Tract)
     * (1664) Questions Concerning the Law of Nature (definitive Latin
       text, with facing accurate English trans. in Robert Horwitz et.
       al., eds., John Locke, Questions Concerning the Law of Nature,
       Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990).
     * (1667) Essay Concerning Toleration
     * (1706) Of the Conduct of the Understanding
     * (1707) A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul

Locke's epitaph

   (translated from Latin)

     "Stop, Traveller! Near this place lieth John Locke. If you ask what
     kind of a man he was, he answers that he lived content with his own
     small fortune. Bred a scholar, he made his learning subservient only
     to the cause of truth. This thou will learn from his writings, which
     will show thee everything else concerning him, with greater truth,
     than the suspect praises of an epitaph. His virtues, indeed, if he
     had any, were too little for him to propose as matter of praise to
     himself, or as an example to thee. Let his vices be buried together.
     As to an example of manners, if you seek that, you have it in the
     Gospels; of vices, to wish you have one nowhere; if mortality,
     certainly, (and may it profit thee), thou hast one here and
     everywhere."

Secondary literature

     * Ashcraft, Richard, 1986. Revolutionary Pollitics & Locke's Two
       Treatises of Government. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
       (Discusses the relationship between Locke's philosophy and his
       political activities.)
     * Bailyn, Bernard, 1992 (1967). The Ideological Origins of the
       American Revolution. Harvard Uni. Press. (Discusses the influence
       of Locke and other thinkers upon the American Revolution and on
       subsequent American political thought.)
     * Cox, Richard, Locke on War and Peace, Oxford: Oxford University
       Press, 1960. (A discussion of Locke's theory of international
       relations.)
     * Chappell, Vere, ed., 19nn. The Cambridge Companion to Locke.
       Cambridge Uni. Press.
     * Dunn, John, 1984. Locke. Oxford Uni. Press. (A succinct
       introduction.)
     * ------, 1969. The Political Thought of John Locke: An Historical
       Account of the Argument of the "Two Treatises of Government".
       Cambridge Uni. Press. (Introduced the interpretation which
       emphasizes the theological element in Locke's political thought.)
     * Macpherson. C. B. The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism:
       Hobbes to Locke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).
       (Establishes the deep affinity from Hobbes to Harrington, the
       Levellers, and Locke through to nineteenth-century utilitarianism).
     * Pangle, Thomas, The Spirit of Modern Republicanism: The Moral
       Vision of the American Founders and the Philosophy of Locke
       (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988; paperback ed., 1990),
       334 pages. (Challenges Dunn's, Tully's, Yolton's, and other
       conventional readings.)
     * Strauss, Leo, Natural Right and History, chap. 5B (Chicago:
       University of Chicago Press, 1953). (Argues from a non-Marxist
       point of view for a deep affinity between Hobbes and Locke.)
     * Strauss, Leo, "Locke's Doctrine of Natural law," American Political
       Science Review 52 (1958) 490-501. (A searing critique of W. von
       Leyden's edition of Locke's unpublished writings on natural law.)
     * Tully, James, 1980. "A Discourse on Property : John Locke and his
       Adversaries" Cambridge Uni. Press
     * Yolton, J. W., ed., 1969. John Locke: Problems and Perspectives.
       Cambridge Uni. Press.
     * Zuckert, Michael, Launching Liberalism: On Lockean Political
       Philosophy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
     * Locke Studies, appearing annually, publishes scholarly work on John
       Locke.

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