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Concerning Toleration. Much of Locke's Work Is Characterized by Opposition To Authoritarianism

John Locke was a 17th century British philosopher known for his defense of empiricism, natural rights, and limited government. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke argued that knowledge comes from experience rather than innate ideas. He believed people have natural rights like life, liberty, and property that governments should protect based on natural law and the social contract. Locke advocated for religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. He viewed reason as the means to discover natural law and determine the proper functions of institutions to maximize human well-being while respecting individual rights and limiting authoritarian power.

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Shatabdi Duttapol sc2nd year
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30 views2 pages

Concerning Toleration. Much of Locke's Work Is Characterized by Opposition To Authoritarianism

John Locke was a 17th century British philosopher known for his defense of empiricism, natural rights, and limited government. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke argued that knowledge comes from experience rather than innate ideas. He believed people have natural rights like life, liberty, and property that governments should protect based on natural law and the social contract. Locke advocated for religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. He viewed reason as the means to discover natural law and determine the proper functions of institutions to maximize human well-being while respecting individual rights and limiting authoritarian power.

Uploaded by

Shatabdi Duttapol sc2nd year
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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JOHN LOCKE:

John Locke was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. Locke’s
monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great
defenses of modern empiricism and concerns itself with determining the limits of human
understanding in respect to a wide spectrum of topics. Among Locke’s political works he is most
famous for The Second Treatise of Government in which he argues that sovereignty resides in
the people and explains the nature of legitimate government in terms of natural rights and the
social contract. He is also famous for calling for the separation of Church and State in his Letter
Concerning Toleration. Much of Locke’s work is characterized by opposition to authoritarianism.
This is apparent both on the level of the individual person and on the level of institutions such
as government and church. For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to search
after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition. He
wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them. On the level of
institutions, it becomes important to distinguish the legitimate from the illegitimate functions
of institutions and to make the corresponding distinction for the uses of force by these
institutions. Locke believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth, and determine the
legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society
both in respect to its material and spiritual welfare. This in turn, amounts to following natural
law and the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity.
John Locke on laws of nature:
Locke believed reason is capable of discovering the natural law basis for deciding how to conduct men’s
affairs. “There is nothing more evident than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously
born with the same advantages of nature and use of the same faculties should be equal one amongst
another without subordination or subjection.”

Thus, “the state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, and reason which is that law teaches all of
mankind who will but consult it that being all equal, no one ought to harm another in his life, health,
liberty or possessions.”

So natural law spins out a set of natural rights that men possess and which it is government’s role to
protect and not violate. And it’s all because there is a natural law that men can discover and by which
they can conduct their lives.

John Locke on natural rights and property:

John Locke defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made
all people naturally subject to a monarch. He argued that people have rights, such as the right to life,
liberty, and property, that have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society. Locke
used the claim that men are naturally free and equal as part of the justification for understanding
legitimate political government as the result of a social contract where people in the state of nature
conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable,
comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property. Since governments exist by the consent of
the people in order to protect the rights of the people and promote the public good, governments that
fail to do so can be resisted and replaced with new governments. Locke is thus also important for his
defense of the right of revolution.

Locke is known as the scholar of Possessive Individualism. He has given absolute right on his property. It
is a right given to man by nature because nature wants man to be happy, to be able to use the things
one must have ownership. State is like a night watchman to protect the property and should not be
doing more on this. Locke also suggest that man should have complete right over property because it is
the product of his own labor. labor is a part of personality one should have complete ownership over
one's personality. In the words of John Locke “I have complete ownership over my labor, the labor of my
slave and the labor of my horse.”

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