Locke, John

Locke, John (1632–1704). Perhaps the most influential English-language philosopher and political theorist, Locke is regarded as the founding thinker of liberalism. However, his influence on contemporaries was restricted by the political conditions of Charles II's last years. Locke lived in the household of Shaftesbury the Whig leader and like him had to go into exile. Locke's important works could not be published until after 1688, although written earlier. He advocated religious toleration, including it in the constitution he drafted for Shaftesbury's Carolina colony. His Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) contains two fundamental assumptions: that religion is a matter for each individual, and that churches are voluntary associations. These rule out religious coercion and uniformity, but political considerations led Locke to deny toleration to the intolerant (catholics, he argued) and atheists. His arguments lead logically to the principle and practice of separation of church and state. The Two Treatises of Government bases government on the consent of the governed, who need an authority to defend their property. A ruler who turns himself into a tyrant, as Charles II and James II had been doing, forfeits his authority and may be resisted. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke's main philosophical work, appeared in 1690. It and The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695) provoked more controversy than the political works.

J. R. Jones