The political and philosophical works of John Locke

Philosophy - John Locke

The Works of Philosopher John Locke

Introduction to John Locke

John Locke was born on August 29, 1632, and died October 28, 1704. In between that span of time he lived a life of varied interests and pursuits: he was a scholar at Oxford University, a medical researcher and physician ("he saved [Lord Ashley Shaftesbury's] life" by removing a cyst from his liver, according to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2004), a political operative, an economist, an ideologue - albeit he is best known today as a philosopher whose thinking and writing had - and continues to have - an enormous impact on democratic institutions.

The Writings and Philosophy of John Locke journal article in the Humanist asserts that although some current leaders in the conservative Christian movement (notably Pat Robertson) do not believe there is really a constitutionally established separation between church and state, indeed that separation is "a cornerstone of American civilization" (Jayne, 1999). and, Jayne continues, Thomas Jefferson's well-known letter to the Baptists of Danbury ("The wall of separation between Church and State") in 1802 was a philosophical principle that was based on John Locke's concept of toleration.

Jefferson and James Madison in fact implemented the spirit behind Locke's philosophical writings in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1777. Jefferson and Madison drew their inspiration from Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration, which advocated separation of church and state, and which also asserted that "the use of force in religion or church" was wholly unacceptable.

Locke had seen what happened to society when the powers of the church and of the government were combined: "...churches frequently used the force of the state to promote and enforce their interests and doctrines," Jayne explains. This combination of church and state "caused horrendous atrocities against Jews and heretics, as well as the European religious wars between Catholics and Protestants" in the 16th and 17th Centuries, which resulted in millions of deaths. In his writings - which later influenced Jefferson and Madison to add "the right of religious freedom" into the Bill of Rights to the Constitution - Locke agreed that force was sometimes necessary when the state needed to punish a person for violating "any other man's rights." But Locke also said the following in his Letter Concerning Toleration:

It is not my business to inquire here into the original of the power or dignity of the clergy. This only I say, that, whencesoever their authority be sprung, since it is ecclesiastical, it ought to be confined within the bounds of the Church, nor can it in any manner be extended to civil affairs, because the Church itself is a thing absolutely separate and distinct from the commonwealth."

As to Locke's doctrine of human rights, an article in Catholic Insight explains that Lock was the "philosophical godfather of the doctrine of human rights" (Roney, 2004) and that Locke insisted that the "inequality" of humans is not a divine creation, but quite a human one. Roney came to that conclusion after reading an excerpt from Chapter II (verse 4) of Locke's an Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government: "...there [is] nothing more evident than that creatures of the same species and rank," Locke wrote in the essay (4LawSchoolLawLibrary, 2004), "promiscuously born to all the same advantages of Nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another, without subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty."

Locke's writings did not always carry the weight that they do today; indeed, even today, in England, Locke's native land, "...there is no public fanfare...you will find his portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, but demand is insufficient for a postcard to be on sale" (Goldie, 2004). But today Locke's writings are used by a diverse assortment of organizations to bolster or justify their positions. The National Rifle Association (NRA) (www.nra.org) uses the 137th paragraph of Locke's Second Treatise on Government as an authoritative source to bolster the NRA's position on the right to bear arms. "Whereas by supposing they have given up themselves to the absolute arbitrary power and will of a legislator, they have disarmed themselves, and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases," Locke wrote.

The John Locke Foundation (http://www.johnlocke.org),a think-tank in North Carolina, uses their perceptions of Locke's philosophy to promote a conservative agenda; for example, the group is opposed to the "costly, immoral, and destructive welfare state," and is against "government corruption and wasteful spending." The foundation quotes from Locke's Second Treatise on Government: "...every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his..."

Locke had a marvelous way of putting the human condition into simple yet profound terms; for instance, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (III. vi. 9), Locke wrote: "Though the familiar use of the Things about us, takes off our Wonder; yet it cures not our ignorance." And further, in his Second Treatise of Civil Government, in addressing human and civil rights vs. government tyranny, Locke explained that "...he that will not just occasion to think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it...most of necessity find another rise of government, another original of political power..."