John Locke

Jeff Wheatley

John Locke (1632-1704)

I. Biographical Information and History.

A. Educated at Westminster School in London and Christ Church College at Oxford. Stayed on at Oxford to get graduate degree in medicine and to teach philosophy until 1666.

B. Upon leaving Oxford, Locke came into contact with the first Earl of Shaftesbury. They formed what would prove to be a lasting personal and political connection. Around 1679, Shaftesbury was involved with a group trying to compel Charles II to ex clude his brother, the Catholic James, from succession to the throne. They failed, and Shaftesbury was imprisoned for the plot, but the influence of this resistance to the sovereign had a strong impact on Locke's justification of the resistance. It i s during this time, it is believed, that Locke wrote the Two Teatises of Government.

C. In 1683, Locke fled to Holland and stayed there until 1689. He returned to England and began to publish works in philosophy, christianity and toleration.

D. From 1696 to 1700, Locke served as one of the commissioners of the Board of Trade. He died in 1704.

II. Major Relevant Works.

A. A Letter Concerning Toleration.

1. The letter was an "appeal to the consciences of those who persecute." a. We should focus on the sins committed and the serious in religion should strive to work against those sins. b. True conversion in religion only happens through charity, love and goodwill. c. The toleration of those that differ from others in the matters of religion is agreeable to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. Locke says it is "necessary above all things to distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion and to settle the just bounds that lie between the one and the other." 

a. Commonwealth - a society of men constituted only for the procuring, preserving, and advancing their own civil interests. He defined civil interests as life, liberty, health, and the possession of outward things, such as money, lands, h ouses, furniture, and the like.

b. It is the duty of the magistrate to secure rights and to punish those who violate them. However, civil magistrates are not concerned with "the care of souls." The authority to care for souls has never been given to any man, therefore, on e cannot force religion.

c. Civil magistrates power concerns only outward matters. Premise - nothing of an outward force can truly change minds. However, magistrates can try to persuade because Locke says "...everyone should reason for truth."

d. The church has no power in civil matters because that power belongs only to the magistrates.

3. A church is "a voluntary society of men, joining themselves together of their own accord in order to the public worshipping of God in such a manner as they judge acceptable to Him, and effectual to the salvation of I say it is a free and volun tary society.

a. The church can make laws regulating behavior, nut no corporal punishment is allowed.

b. Men can come and go as they please, there is no inheritance.

c. There is no one correct church. Division in the churches creates choices, which in turn creates freedom. d. No church has power over another; therefore, no discrimination can take place based on a man's religion.

B. Second Treatise on Government.

1. State of Nature - "A state of perfect freedom to order and dispose as they think fit, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man and of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more th an another."

2. Freedom - "In the state of nature, he hath such a right, yet the enjoyment of it is very uncertain, and constantly exposed to the invasion of others."

3. Support for Social Contract and the Preservation of Property(Lives, Liberties, and Estates).

a. Written Law: Established Law - received and allowed by common consent to be the Standard of Right and Wrong.

b. Judicial Power: A Known and Indifferent Judge.

c. Executive Power: The Power to Give Execution. It is the power that prevents men from living in the State of Nature.

4. Forms of Commonwealth. Commonwealth means any independent community.

a. Perfect Democracy - The whole power of the community naturally in them, may employ all that power in making laws for the community from time to time, and executing those laws by officers of their own appointing.

b. Oligarchy - Put the power of making laws into the hands of a few select men, and their heirs or successors.

c. Monarchy - Put the power of making laws into the hands of one man.

d. Hereditary Monarchy - Put the power of making laws into the hands of one man and his heirs. e. Elective Monarchy - Put the power of making laws into the hands of one man only for life, but upon his death the power only of nominating a successor to return to them.

5. Extent of Legislative Power

a. "It is not, nor can possibly be absolutely arbitrary over the lives and fortunes of the people."

b. "It cannot assume to its self a power to rule by extemporary arbitrary decrees, but is bound to dispense justice, and decide the rights of the subject by promulgated standing laws, and known authorized judges."

c. "The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent."

d. " The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands."

6. Tyranny - the exercise of power beyond right a. "Where-ever law ends, Tyranny begins."

7. The dissolution of government - Chapter XIX, section 222.

III. Contribution to Free Speech Theory.

His major contributions involved the novel ideas (at the time) of the separation of church and state and his political theory. Locke believed that government did not give rights, it just protected them. He believed that men enter into society for the p reservation of their own property and that by creating a legislative, rules and laws can be made to serve this purpose. If the government showed signs of tyranny, then the people had the right to gain back their original liberty and start over with a new legislative. These ideas of political and religious freedom are the major contributions he made.

IV. Bibliography.

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. edited by Peter Laslett

Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. edited by C. B. Macpherson.

Locke, John. Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Found on the Internet.

Locke, John. A Letter Concerning Toleration. Found on the Internet.