Abstract
This essay disputes one of the central claims in Jeremy Waldron’s God, Locke, and Equality (2002), that being the claim that Locke’s arguments about species in An Essay concerning Human Understanding undercut his assertions about the equality of the human species as a matter of natural law in Two Treatises of Government. It argues, firstly, and pace Waldron, that Locke’s view of natural law is foundational to his view of man, not vice versa, and, secondly, that Two Treatises is written in an idiom different from Locke’s philosophical writings, such that directly transposing the ideas discussed in one idiom to the other is as confused as it is confusing. After providing a new account of the relationship between Locke’s philosophy and his views of morality, politics, and religion, the essay concludes that Waldron fails to grasp the style and structure of Locke’s thinking, and so cumulatively misunderstands and distorts Locke’s views about moral identity, toleration, religion, and politics alike.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 323-347 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 21 Jun 2011 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2011 |
Bibliographical note
An abbreviated and revised version of the essay titled 'Locke the thinker', published in Locke Studies in 2008.Keywords
- John Locke
- toleration
- Jeremy Waldron
- politics
- religion
- abstraction
- natural law