John Locke (1632–1704)

 

John Locke was an English philosopher and political thinker whose work had a major place in the development of liberal political thought. He was born in 1632 in Somerset, England, studied at Oxford, and worked for many years in medicine, philosophy and public affairs. His writings covered politics, knowledge, religion, education and human understanding. His Two Treatises of Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding became his best-known works. 

Locke's political philosophy starts from the claim that human beings are naturally free and equal. He rejects the idea that people are born with a natural duty to obey a particular king. Before governments exist, people live in what Locke calls the state of nature. This does not mean a condition in which everyone is constantly fighting. People are free and equal, but there is no common political authority with the accepted power to settle disputes. Locke nevertheless argues that the state of nature is governed by a law of nature, which human reason can discover. 

For Locke, this law places limits on how people may treat one another. Since people are naturally equal, no one has the right to arbitrarily destroy another person's life, liberty, health or possessions. These become the basis of what are commonly called Locke's natural rights. His account combines rights with duties: people have rights, but they also have obligations toward the preservation of themselves and other human beings. 

One of Locke's most discussed ideas is his theory of property. He begins with the claim that the earth is given to humanity in common and then asks how an individual can legitimately acquire something as private property. His answer centres on labour. When a person applies their labour to something in the natural world, Locke argues, this can provide a basis for private ownership, subject to limits that he discusses in the Second Treatise. 

Property, however, does not stand outside politics. Locke sees government as necessary partly because individuals need an impartial authority to protect their rights and settle disputes. People therefore enter into political society through consent. They give government certain powers that they previously exercised individually, especially the power to make and enforce laws, while retaining their fundamental rights. 

This gives Locke a different understanding of political authority from the doctrine of absolute monarchy. Government is legitimate because of the purpose for which it exists and the consent of those subject to it. Its purpose is to protect people's rights and serve the public good. Political authority is therefore limited rather than unlimited. 

This argument leads to Locke's right of resistance. When a government stops protecting the purposes for which political authority was established and instead acts against the rights of the people, Locke argues that the people can resist it and establish a new government. His theory therefore links limited government with a right to oppose government that becomes destructive of its own purpose. 

Locke's account of consent has generated considerable debate. He distinguishes explicit consent from what he calls tacit consent, through which people can be understood as accepting the authority of a government in certain circumstances. Later scholars have questioned whether actions such as living in a country or using its roads provide sufficiently voluntary consent to political authority. This remains an important debate in interpretations of Locke. 

Locke also made an important contribution to the philosophy of knowledge. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he argues against the idea that the human mind is born with a stock of innate ideas. His discussion treats experience as central to the formation of knowledge and examines how the mind receives, combines and works with ideas. His theory of knowledge became an important reference point for later debates about experience, reason and the limits of human understanding. 

His writings on religious toleration and education are also significant. Locke argued that religious belief should not normally be imposed through civil power, although his arguments about toleration had limits and changed across different writings. In Some Thoughts Concerning Education, he also discussed the formation of character, habits and judgment in children.

Locke's political thought became closely associated with constitutional government, individual rights, consent and limited political power. His arguments later influenced political debates in Britain and the Atlantic world and became part of the intellectual background of the American and French revolutions. The extent and exact nature of that influence, however, remain subjects of historical debate. 

Main ideas associated with John Locke

Natural rights: People possess rights by virtue of being human, including rights connected with life, liberty and property.

Natural equality: Human beings are naturally free and equal rather than born subject to a particular ruler. 

State of nature: A condition without a common political authority, though still governed by the law of nature.

Consent: Legitimate political society rests on the agreement of those who become its members.

Limited government: Government has defined purposes and does not possess unlimited authority.

Right of resistance: People may resist and replace a government that violates the purposes for which political authority was established. 

Property and labour: Labour provides part of Locke's explanation for the creation and legitimacy of private property.

Empiricism: Human knowledge develops through experience rather than from a fully formed set of innate ideas.

Major works

• Two Treatises of Government (1689/1690)
• An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
• A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
• Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
• The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695)

John Locke's political philosophy connects freedom, equality, property, consent and limited government. His larger question was how political authority can be legitimate when individuals are naturally free and equal. His answer became one of the major foundations of modern liberal political theory.