Natural law, nonconformity, and toleration: two stages on Locke's way

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This essay identifies two significant stages in the development of Locke's mature position about toleration and explains the connections between them. At each stage, Locke made a series of conceptual moves whose effect, when combined, was to replace one understanding of the relations between church and state with another, and one upon which the argument of his Epistola de tolerantia/A Letter concerning toleration depended. Locke's ‘Defence of nonconformity’ (1681-2) is shown to be a pivotal text, which looks forward to the conclusions of Two treatises of government as well as Epistola and which provides pressing reasons to doubt the adequacy of most modern treatments of Locke's view of toleration and the assumptions they embody about his wider moral and political theory.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNatural law and toleration in the early Enlightenment
EditorsJon Parkin, Timothy Stanton
Place of PublicationOxford
PublisherOxford University Press
Pages35-57
ISBN (Print)978-0-19-726540-6
Publication statusPublished - May 2013
EventNatural law and Toleration in the Early Enlightenment - London, United Kingdom
Duration: 13 Apr 200713 Apr 2007

Publication series

NameProceedings of the British Academy
PublisherOxford University Press
Number186

Workshop

WorkshopNatural law and Toleration in the Early Enlightenment
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityLondon
Period13/04/0713/04/07

Keywords

  • John Locke; natural law; toleration; church and state; nonconformity; moral and political theory

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