John Locke

1632-1704 · English · Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion, Political Philosophy, Moral Philosophy

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.

When John Locke published his Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government in 1689, he did so anonymously — just returned from Dutch exile after helping plot against a Stuart regime moving toward absolutism. His patron, Shaftesbury, had led parliamentary resistance and died a fugitive. Those years abroad were spent finishing two of the most consequential books in English.

Topics John Locke addresses

• the polemic against innate ideas and innate principles
• sensation and reflection
• simple and complex ideas
• primary and secondary qualities
• real essence and nominal essence
• substance as something I know not what
• power, active and passive
• the will and uneasiness
• consciousness and personal identity
• the man / person distinction
• the forensic person
• knowledge as perception of agreement of ideas
• intuitive, demonstrative, and sensitive knowledge
• thinking matter
• faith and reason
• enthusiasm
• the demonstrability of morality
• the law of nature
• workmanship of the Maker
• the state of nature
• equality and natural freedom
• property and the labor theory
• the spoilage limit
• enough and as good

Questions to put to John Locke

Ideas, Sensation, and the Mind's Materials

• Why do you spend so much time attacking innate ideas?
• What's the difference between sensation and reflection?
• How does a simple idea become a complex idea?
• What do you mean when you call substance 'something I know not what'?
• What's the difference between primary and secondary qualities?
• Can you explain the man-person distinction?

Knowledge, Probability, and the Conduct of Understanding

• What do you mean by knowledge as the perception of agreement of ideas?
• What's the difference between intuitive, demonstrative, and sensitive knowledge?
• How narrow is the scope of what we can actually know?
• How should we proportion our belief when we don't have knowledge?
• What's the difference between faith and enthusiasm?
• What's reason's role in judging whether something has been revealed?

The Law of Nature and the Foundations of Politics

• How does the workmanship-of-the-Maker argument establish equality?
• What's the law of nature, and how do we know it?
• What's the state of nature, and why isn't it just a war of all against all?
• Why does everyone have the right to punish transgressors in the state of nature?
• Is the theological foundation really necessary for your political conclusions?

Property, Labor, and the Introduction of Money

• How does mixing my labor with something make it mine?
• What are the spoilage limit and the 'enough and as good' proviso?
• Do the natural-law limits on property still apply after people consent to money?
• Does the labor theory justify unlimited accumulation?
• Do the poor have an enforceable right to the surplus of the rich?

Government by Compact and the Right of Resistance

• What are the inconveniences of the state of nature that government remedies?
• What does it mean that legislative power is held in trust?
• What's the difference between the legislative, executive, and federative powers?
• When does a government exceed its trust and justify resistance?
• How is your account of resistance different from just saying rebellion is always permissible?

Toleration, Revelation, and the Reasonableness of Christianity

• Why can't the magistrate have authority over the care of souls?
• How do you defend excluding atheists and Catholics from toleration?
• What's the saving belief the New Testament actually requires?
• Why don't you affirm the Trinity in The Reasonableness of Christianity?
• How can morality be demonstrable if we need revelation to know our duties?

Converse with John Locke on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in John Locke's own writing, cited to the page.