Two Treatises of Government / Edition 3

by John Locke

Overview

Published after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 brought William of Orange and Mary to the throne, but written in the throes of the Whig revolutionary plots against Charles II in the early 1680s, John Locke offers a theory of natural law and natural rights which distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate civil governments, and argues for the legitimacy of revolt against tyrannical governments. These radical ideas remain influential today.

In these two treatises the political philosopher John Locke espouses radical theories which influenced the ideologies of the American and French revolutions, and became the basis for the social and political philosophies of Rousseau, Voltaire and the United States founding fathers.

In the first treatise Locke aims to refute the doctrine of the patriarchal and absolute right of the Divine Right of Kings doctrine put forth by Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha. He examines key Biblical passages to prove that scripture does not support Filmer's premise.

The second treatise offers Locke's positive theory of government in which he establishes a theory which reconciles the liberty of the citizen with political order. His basic premise is founded on the independence of the individual. He declares that men are born free and equal in their rights and that wealth is the product of labor. In his revolutionary theory of the social contract he proposes that a legitimate civil government must preserve the rights to life, liberty, health and property of its citizens, and prosecute and punish those in violation of those rights. Reprint of the 1698 third edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781584776024
Publisher:	The Lawbook Exchange
Publication date:	07/20/2010
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

John Locke (29 August 1632 - 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, Locke is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence. Internationally, Locke's political-legal principles continue to have a profound influence on the theory and practice of limited representative government and the protection of basic rights and freedoms under the rule of law.Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness.He postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate, or tabula rasa. Contrary to Cartesian philosophy based on pre-existing concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception, a concept now known as empiricism.

Editorial Reviews

"The notes are excellent. There are very few people likely to pick up Locke who would not find them of use. Would that every edition of a classic work had an index of this quality, allowing the reader to go back and find a previous discussion touching on the same issue. The Introduction is clearly written, intelligent, and the argument is sound. I know of no better short introduction to this work."
—Paul A. Rahe, Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage, Professor of History, Hillsdale College

From the Publisher