Topics

Major Works

  • Two Treatises of Government

    - Recommended edition: Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Peter Laslett. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
    Excerpt: “Thou hast here the beginning and end of a discourse concerning government; what fate has otherwise disposed of the papers that should have filled up the middle, and were more than all the rest, it is not worth while to tell thee. These, which… More

  • A Letter Concerning Toleration

    - Recommended edition: Locke, John. A Letter Concerning Toleration. Edited by James Tully. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1983.
    Excerpt: “I think indeed there is no nation under heaven, in which so much has already been said upon that subject, as ours. But yet certainly there is no people that stand in more need of having something further both said and done amongst them, in… More

  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

    - Recommended edition: Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Peter H. Nidditch. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.
    Excerpt: “Since it is the understanding, that sets man above the rest of sensible beings, and gives him all the advantage and dominion, which he has over them; it is certainly a subject, even for its nobleness, worth our labour to inquire into. The… More

  • Some Thoughts Concerning Education

    - Recommended edition: Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Edited by Ruth Grant and Nathan Tarcov. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1996.
    Excerpt: “I myself have been consulted of late by so many, who profess themselves at a loss how to breed their children; and the early corruption of youth is now become so general a complaint; that he cannot be thought wholly impertinent, who brings the… More

Other Works

  • Two Tracts on Government

    - Recommended edition: Political Essays, ed. Mark Goldie (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 3-78.
    Excerpt: I have chosen to draw a great part of my discourse from the supposition of the magistrate’s power, derived from, or conveyed to him by, the consent of the people, as a way best suited to those patrons of liberty, and most likely to obviate… More

  • Essays on the Law of Nature

    - Recommended edition: Political Essays, ed. Mark Goldie (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 79-133.
    Excerpt: Since God shows Himself to us as present everywhere and, as it were, forces Himself upon the eyes of men as much in the fixed course of nature now as by the  frequent evidence of miracles in time past, I assume there will be no one to deny the… More

  • An Essay on the Poor Law

    - Recommended edition: Political Essays, ed. Mark Goldie (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 182- 198.
    Excerpt: If the cause of this evil be well looked into, we humbly conceive it will be found to have proceeded neither from scarcity of provisions, nor from want of employment for the poor, since the goodness of God has blessed these times with plenty, no less… More

  • Of the Conduct of the Understanding

    - Recommended edition: Some Thoughts Concerning Education, ed. Ruth Grant and Nathan Tarcov (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1996).
    Excerpt: The last resort a man has recourse to, in the conduct of himself, is his understanding: for though we distinguish the faculties of the mind, and give the supreme command to the will, as to an agent; yet the truth is, the man, who is the agent,… More

  • The Reasonableness of Christianity

    - Recommended Edition: The Reasonableness of Christianity, ed. I. Ramsey (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1958).
    Excerpt: The little satisfaction and consistency that is to be found, in most of the systems of divinity I have met with, made me betake myself to the sole reading of the scriptures (to which they all appeal) for the understanding the Christian Religion.… More

  • Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

    - Recommended edition: Political Essays, ed. Mark Goldie (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 160-181.
    Excerpt: Our sovereign lord the king having, out of his royal grace and bounty, granted unto us the province of Carolina, with all the royalties, properties, jurisdictions, and privileges of a county palatine, as large and ample as the county palatine of… More

  • Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money

    - John Locke, "Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money" in The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, Vol. 4 (London: Rivington, 1824).
    Excerpt: The first thing to be considered is, “Whether the price of the hire of money can be regulated by law?” And to that I think, generally speaking, one may say, it is manifest it cannot. For since it is impossible to make a law that shall hinder a… More

  • Short Observations On a Printed Paper, Entitled, For Encouraging the Coining Silver Money In England, and After For Keeping It Here

    - John Locke, "Short Observations On a Printed Paper, Entitled, For Encouraging the Coining Silver Money In England, and After For Keeping It Here" in The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, Vol 4 (London: Rivington, 1824).
    Excerpt: The matter in short is this; England sending more consumable commodities to Spain than it receives from thence, the merchants, who manage their trade, bring back the overplus in bullion, which, at their return, they sell as a commodity. The chapmen,… More

  • Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman

    - John Locke, "Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman" in The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, Vol. 2 (London: Rivington, 1824).
    Excerpt: The improvement of the understanding is for two ends; first, for our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver and make out that knowledge to others. The latter of these, if it be not the chief end of study in a gentleman; yet it… More

  • A Discourse of Miracles

    - John Locke, "A Discourse of Miracles" in The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, Vol. 8 (London: Rivington, 1824).
    Excerpt: It is to be considered, that divine revelation receives testimony from no other miracles, but such as are wrought to witness his mission from God who delivers the revelation. All other miracles that are done in the world, how many or great soever,… More

  • Observations Upon the Growth and Culture of Vines and Olives

    - John Locke, "Observations Upon the Growth and Culture of Vines and Olives" in The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, Vol. 9 (London: Rivington, 1824.)
    Excerpt: THE country, where these observations were made, hath vanity enough to over-value every thing it produces; and it is hard to live in a place, and not take some tincture from the manners of the people. Yet I think I should scarce have ventured to… More

Commentary

  • Natural Right and History

    - Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953).
    In this classic work, Leo Strauss examines the problem of natural right and argues that there is a firm foundation in reality for the distinction between right and wrong in ethics and politics. On the centenary of Strauss’s birth, and the fiftieth… More

  • “John Locke and Natural Law”

    - W. von Leyden, "John Locke and Natural Law," Philosophy 31 (1956), 23-35
    Excerpt: The law of nature as it occurs in Locke’s philosophy is not the same as one of Galileo’s or Newton’s so-called laws of nature: it is not concerned with physical phenomena, their motion or regularity. In the sense in which Locke uses… More

  • “John Locke as ‘Authoritarian'”

    - Leo Strauss, "John Locke as 'Authoritarian,'" review of John Locke: Two Tracts on Government, by Philip Abrams, Intercollegiate Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (November-December 1967).
    Excerpt: The question regarding the Hobbianism of the young Locke may be said to be of sonic importance with a view to the fundamental question regarding the political philosophy of the mature or old Locke, to the question which would have to be stated as… More

  • Locke and the Way of Ideas

    - John Yolton, Locke and the Way of Ideas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956).
    Summary: Without in any way denying that Locke’s philosophy was influenced by Continental movements of thought, Dr. Yolton in this excellent study argues, and indeed establishes the point,t hat Locke in writing the Essay had in mind the many debates… More

  • John Locke and Education

    - John Yolton, John Locke and Education (New York: Random House, 1971).

  • “Locke’s State of Nature in Political Society”

    - Robert Goldwin, "Locke's State of Nature in Political Society," Western Political Quarterly 29 (1976), 126-135.
    Excerpt: “Readers of the Two Treatises of Government have long wondered about the meaning of Locke’s discussion of the state of nature. Did Locke think that the state of nature really existed, or did he present it as an invented or imagined state?… More

  • Anarchy, State, and Utopia

    - Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1977).
    Excerpt: “We slow down the dramatic pace of our tale in order to consider Locke’s views on parental ownership of children. Locke must discuss Filmer in detail, not merely to clear the field of some alternative curious view, but to show why that… More

  • The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol.II

    - Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Vol. 2 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978).
    Excerpt: “With the publication of the major Huguenot treatises of the 1570s, Protestant political theory passes across a crucial conceptual divide. Hitherto even the most radical Calvinists had vindicated the lawfulness of resistance in terms of the… More

  • “On the Political Character of Property in Locke”

    - Harvey Mansfield, “On the Political Character of Property in Locke,” in Powers, Possessions and Freedom: Essays in Honour of C.B. MacPherson. Ed. A. Kontos (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), 23-38.
    Excerpt: It is a curious fact that Marx, who elaborated the labor theory of value, had little to say of Locke, who originated it. Only in the manuscript called Theories of Surplus Value does he comment on Locke’s theory…”Locke’s view… More

  • Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development

    - Richard Tuck, Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
    This book shows how political argument in terms of rights and natural rights began in medieval Europe, and how the theory of natural rights was developed in the seventeenth century after a period of neglect in the Renaissance. Dr Tuck provides a new… More

  • The Political Thought of John Locke

    - John Dunn, The Political Thought of John Locke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969).
    This study provides a comprehensive reinterpretation of the meaning of Locke’s political thought. John Dunn restores Locke’s ideas to their exact context, and so stresses the historical question of what Locke in the Two Treatises of Government was… More

  • A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries

    - James Tully, A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1980).
    John Locke’s theory of property is perhaps the most distinctive and the most influential aspect of his political theory. In this book James Tully uses an hermeneutical and analytical approach to offer a revolutionary revision of early modern theories of… More

  • “The Forms and Formalities of Liberty”

    - Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., "The Forms and Formalities of Liberty" The Public Interest 70 (1983), 121-131.
    Excerpt: “The populism I have described as aggressive informality is fundamentally opposed to constitutionalism, which promotes respect for forms above all. Governing in a constitutional manner is governing regularly, that is, formally. Locke wrote… More

  • The Politics of Locke’s Philosophy: A Social Study of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

    - Neal Wood, The Politics of Locke's Philosophy: A Social Study of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
    Among scholars working in the history of ideas, Neal and Ellen Wood hold a special place. For more than a decade, working jointly and alone, they have been discovering the social contexts of philosophical thought. … As Neal Wood summarizes in this… More

  • “A ‘Non-Lockean’ Locke and the Character of Liberalism”

    - Nathan Tarcov, “A ‘Non-Lockean’ Locke and the Character of Liberalism,” in Liberalism Reconsidered, ed. Douglas MacLean and Claudia Mills (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1983).
    Excerpt: Misunderstanding of Lockean liberalism helps to stimulate not only the historical search for non-Lockean elements in the American tradition, but also the dissatisfaction with liberalism. Not everyone can be satisfied by an understanding of man as an… More

  • Virtue, Commerce, and History: Essays on Political Thought and History, Chiefly in the Eighteenth Century

    - JGA Pocock, Virtue, Commerce, and History: Essays on Political Thought and History, Chiefly in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
    This book collects essays by Professor Pocock concerned principally with the history of British political thought in the eighteenth century. Several of the essays have been previously published (though they have not all been widely available), and several… More

  • John Locke: A Biography

    - Maurice Cranston, John Locke: A Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).
    First published in 1957, Maurice Cranston’s book is recognized as the definitive biography of John Locke. It provides that rare combination of sound scholarship, a wealth and variety of original source material, and a lively, compelling narrative.

  • Property and Political Theory

    - Alan Ryan, Property and Political Theory (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985).
    A philosophical analysis (not a history of ideas) of the relationship between work and property among a number of key western thinkers, concentrating upon how property is justified or criticized, and how it has been related to notions of citizenship. Ryan… More

  • Revolutionary Politics and Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government”

    - Richard Ashcraft, Revolutionary Politics and Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government” (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986).
    Richard Ashcraft offers a new interpretation of the political thought of John Locke by viewing his ideas, especially those in the Two Treatises of Government, in the context of his political activity. Linking the implications of Locke’s political… More

  • The Authoritarian Family and Political Attitudes in 17th Century England

    - Gordon Schochet, The Authoritarian Family and Political Attitudes in 17th Century England (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1988).
    This classic study of the relationship between paternal and political authority identifies patriachalism as a leitmotif of western social and political thought since the time of Plato and Aristotle. Gordon Schochet shows that patriarchal doctrines can be… More

  • “Constitutional Government: The Soul of Modern Democracy”

    - Harvey Mansfield, "Constitutional Government: The Soul of Modern Democracy," The Public Interest 86 (1987), 53-64.
    Excerpt: How did it come about that virtue is not required but somehow expected under our Constitution? To explain our embarrassment with the notion of “virtue,” we must see why modern democracy is unhappy with the word “soul.” For… More

  • John Locke’s Liberalism

    - Ruth Grant, John Locke’s Liberalism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).
    In this work, Ruth W. Grant presents a new approach to John Locke’s familiar works. Taking the unusual step of relating Locke’s Two Treatises to his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Grant establishes the unity and coherence of… More

  • “John Locke”

    - Robert Goldwin, "John Locke" in History of Political Philosophy, eds. Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).
    Excerpt: The theme of human freedom characterizes those of Locke’s works which are most important for an understanding of his political thought: in A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), he wrote of religious freedom; in the Two Treatises of Government… More

  • “Locke’s Political Anthropology and Lockean Individualism”

    - Ruth Grant, "Locke's Political Anthropology and Lockean Individualism," Review of Politics 50 (1988), 42-63.
    Locke’s anthropological accounts do not depict isolated individuals whose behavior is governed by rational calculations of their interests. He is not an “atomistic” individualist; he acknowledges what communitarian critics of liberalism… More

  • “Locke’s Doctrine of Natural Law” by Leo Strauss

    - Strauss, Leo. “Locke's Doctrine of Natural Law.” In What Is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies, 197–220. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959.  
    Excerpt: “Locke’s notion of natural right appears to be much closer to the traditional view as restated by Hooker than to the revolutionary view of Hobbes. Closer inspection would show that this appearance is deceptive and must be traced to Locke’s… More

  • Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power

    - Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power, The Free Press, 1989; paperback edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. The Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (April 1, 1993)
    From the publisher: This survey of Western political thought ranges from Aristotle to “The Federalist Papers”, showing how the doctrine of executive power arose and how it has developed to the present day. Although there were various… More

  • “John Locke and the Theological Foundation of Liberal Toleration”

    - Joshua Mitchell, “John Locke and the Theological Foundation of Liberal Toleration,” Review of Politics 52 (1990), 64-83.
    Locke’s doctrine of toleration is best understood in the context of his larger argument about the political significance of Christ. Christ, Locke argues, separated the spiritual and political realm. His argument for separating the two realms, his basis… More

  • “Locke and the Legislative Principle”

    - Walter Berns, "Locke and the Legislative Principle," The Public Interest 100 (1990), 147-156.
    Excerpt: Like so many of our political principles, this idea of legislative superiority (but not supremacy) derives from John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government. Locke began, as did his predecessor Thomas Hobbes, with an analysis of the condition… More

  • The Spirit of Modern Republicanism

    - Thomas Pangle, The Spirit of Modern Republicanism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
    The Spirit of Modern Republicanism sets forth a radical reinterpretation of the foundations on which the American regime was constructed. Thomas L. Pangle argues that the Founders had a dramatically new vision of civic virtue, religious faith, and… More

  • The Liberal Tradition in America

    - Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America (New York: Mariner Books, 1991).
    Hartz’s influential interpretation of american political thought since the Revolution. He contends that America gave rise to a new concept of a liberal society, a “liberal tradition” that has been central to our experience of events both at home and… More

  • The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn

    - Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
    In The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Bernard Bailyn explores how leaders of the American Revolution engaged with the ideas of John Locke, particularly his theories of natural rights, the social contract, and the right of rebellion. Bailyn… More

  • The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in Locke’s Political Thought

    - Uday Mehta, The Anxiety of Freedom (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992).
    Summary: Against what he describes as the “all but canonical” reading of Locke as a narrowly political theorist, concerned with erecting institutional fences to prevent naturally free, rational, interested individuals from violating one… More

  • America’s Constitutional Soul

    - Harvey Mansfield, America's Constitutional Soul (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).
    Excerpt: The institutional political science of our day, with its studies of constituted groups and accidental eddies of interaction in politics, is part of, and heir to, a grand movement in modern political science dating from Hobbes and Locke of which it… More

  • An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts

    - James Tully, An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1993).
    An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts brings together Professor Tully’s most important and innovative statements on Locke in a systematic treatment of the latter’s thought that is at once contextual and critical. Each essay has… More

  • The Cambridge Companion to Locke

    - The Cambridge Companion to Locke, ed. Vere Chappell (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
    The essays in this volume provide a systematic survey of Locke’s philosophy informed by the most recent scholarship. They cover Locke’s theory of ideas, his philosophies of body, mind, language, and religion, his theory of knowledge, his ethics,… More

  • Locke’s Life and Times

    - Milton, JR. "Locke's Life and Times." The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: Exactly when Locke first became acquainted with the ideas of the mechanical philosophy cannot be determined. There is no evidence that he had any links with the group of innovators associated with John Wilkins at Wadham – unlike his precocious… More

  • Locke’s Theory of Ideas

    - Chappell, Vere. "Locke's Theory of Ideas." The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: “Ideas play a large role in Locke’s philosophy. In Locke’s view, everything existing or occurring in the mind either is or includes an idea; and all human knowledge both starts from and is founded on ideas. The very word… More

  • Locke’s Philosophy of Body

    - McCann, Edwin. "Locke's Philosophy of Body," The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: “Locke’s treatment of such central philosophical issues as substance, qualities, identity, natural kinds, and the structure and limits of scientific explanation was fundamentally shaped by the conception of the body (or as we would say it… More

  • Locke’s Philosophy of Mind

    - Bennett, Jonathan. "Locke's Philosophy of Mind," The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: ‘The topics to be covered in this chapter are as follows: (I) Locke’s acceptance of Descartes’ view that there is a radical separation, a perhaps unbridgeable gap, beween the world’s mental and its physical aspects; Lockes… More

  • Locke’s Philosophy of Language

    - Guyer, Paul. "Locke's Philosophy of Language," The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: “Locke’s first reference to language in the “Epistle to the Reader” at the outset of his Essay concerning Human Understanding suggests merely a pragmatic, Baconian insistance that we must strive for clarity in language because… More

  • Locke’s Theory of Knowledge

    - Woolhouse, Roger. "Locke's Theory of Knowledge," The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: “In the course of its considerable length, the Essay concerning Human Understanding deals with many topics; but its main theme and concern is knowledge and the capacity of the human understanding to acquire it. “My Purpose,” Locke… More

  • Locke’s Philosophy of Religion

    - Wolterstoff, Nicholas. "Locke's Philosophy of Religion," The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: “John Locke’s philosophy of religion is one of the great creative achievements in the history of philosophy of religion in the West. It has also proved powerfully influential: at least until recently, probably most modern Western… More

  • Locke’s Moral Philosophy

    - Scheneewind, J.B. "Locke's Moral Philosophy," The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: “Friends as well as critics asked Locke several times to give a “plain explication” of his moral theory, but in his published writings he did not do so, and his rejections of his friends requests could be testy. Though one or two of… More

  • Locke’s Political Philosophy

    - Ashcraft, Richard. "Locke's Political Philosophy," The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: “Lockes political philosophy has generally been presented and assessed in terms of certain conclusions drawn from a few basic premises. Since Locke’s political was not constructed according to the presuppositions of analytical philosophy,… More

  • Locke’s Influence

    - Aarsleff, Hans. "Locke's Influence," The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. Vere Chappell, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    Excerpt: “It requires effort to grasp the radical nature of Locke’s moves against contemporary arguments for political, epistemological, and religious authority. Even such a rational man as Locke’s near contemporary Henry More defended… More

  • John Locke: Resistance, Religion and Responsibility

    - John Marshall, John Locke: Resistance, Religion and Responsibility (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
    This book provides a major new historical account of the development of the political, religious, social and moral thought of the political theorist and philosopher John Locke. It offers reinterpretations of several of his most important works, particularly… More

  • The Human Condition

    - Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958).
    A work of striking originality bursting with unexpected insights, The Human Condition is in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1958. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the… More

  • Our Only Star and Compass: Locke and the Struggle for Political Rationality

    - Peter C. Myers, Our Only Star and Compass: Locke and the Struggle for Political Rationality (Lexington, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999)
    In Our Only Star and Compass: Locke and the Struggle for Political Rationality, Peter C. Myers reexamines the role of Locke in liberal political philosophy. Myers considers Locke’s philosophy in relation both to contemporary liberalism and to the great… More

  • “John Locke and the Foundations of Toleration”

    - Nathan Tarcov, "John Locke and the Foundations of Toleration," in Early Modern Skepticism and the Origins of Toleration, ed. Alan Levine (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 1999).
    Excerpt: “There is another sense in which Locke is an advocate for more than toleration… If toleration is taken, as it is historically with reference to the controversies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as meaning specifically… More

  • Locke’s Education for Liberty by Nathan Tarcov

    - Tarcov, Nathan. Locke’s Education for Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
    From the publisher: “Locke’s Education for Liberty presents an analysis of the crucial but often underestimated place of education and the family within Lockean liberalism. Nathan Tarcov shows that Locke’s neglected work Some Thoughts… More

  • “Natural Law, Theology, and Morality in Locke”

    - Steven Forde, "Natural Law, Theology, and Morality in Locke," American Journal of Political Science, 45 (2001), 396-409.
    Liberal theorists have always been confronted with the criticism that liberalism lacks a moral foundation adequate to the needs of society. I undertake a reading of Locke that agrees with those scholars who have found greater moral resources in his philosophy… More

  • “The Family in John Locke’s Political Thought”

    - Jacqueline Pfeffer, “The Family in John Locke’s Political Thought,” Polity 33 (2001), 593-618.
    What might attention to Locke’s political thought contribute to contemporary debates about the family? I consider the original Lockean understanding of the role of family in civil society as presented in Locke’s Two Treatises of Government and… More

  • Launching Liberalism: On Lockean Political Philosophy

    - Michael Zuckert, Launching Liberalism: On Lockean Political Philosophy (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2002).
    In this volume, prominent political theorist Michael Zuckert presents an important and pathbreaking set of meditations on the thought of John Locke. In more than a dozen provocative essays, many appearing in print for the first time, Zuckert explores the… More

  • “Locke’s Doctrine of Human Action”

    - Mark Blitz, “Locke’s Doctrine of Human Action” in The Claremont Review of Books, 26 Aug 2002.
    Excerpt: “The fullest freedom might seem to be dwelling within the fullest suspension or indifference with no choice ever being made. Utter suspension, however, would result in inaction and even in the lack of thought, for unease leads to industry in… More

  • Was Leo Strauss Wrong About John Locke?

    - James R. Stoner, Jr., "Was Leo Strauss Wrong About John Locke," Claremont Review of Books (December 2002).
    Excerpt: Was Leo Strauss wrong about John Locke?  Surely that he was has been the consensus among historians of political thought, though their reasons are sometimes at variance.  The Cambridge school, influenced by the work of John Dunn, interprets… More

  • God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke’s Political Thought

    - Jeremy Waldron, God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.)
    Jeremy Waldron looks at the principle of equality in the thought of John Locke, and the extent to which this is grounded in Christian principles. Throughout the text, Waldron discusses contemporary approaches to equality and rival interpretations of Locke,… More

  • The Machiavellian Moment

    - JGA Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975).
    Excerpt: “At this point is it appropriate to bring in the name of Locke. In the Two Treatises of Government, published if not written nine or so years before this debate, he had argued that societies formed by the simple occupation and cultivation of… More

  • “Nature and Happiness in Locke”

    - Thomas West, “Nature and Happiness in Locke” in The Claremont Review of Books, 19 Apr 2004.
    Excerpt: Contrary to Zuckert, I agree with Strauss that Locke’s doctrine of natural law is not a moral doctrine in the strict sense, because Locke is unable to establish by mere reason the fact of a moral obligation, that is, a lawgiver who promulgates… More

  • Duty Bound

    - Mark Blitz, Duty Bound: Responsibility and American Public Life, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
    From the publisher: In this timely and enlightening new work, Mark Blitz explores the link between character and politics in liberal democracies, focusing on the importance of responsibility in American public and professional life. He begins by analyzing the… More

  • Politics and Vision

    - Sheldon Wolin, Politics and Vision (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).
    Sheldon Wolin’s Politics and Vision inspired and instructed two generations of political theorists after its appearance in 1960. It culminates in Wolin’s remarkable argument that the United States has invented a new political form,… More

  • “What Does Locke Expect Us to Know?” by Steven Forde

    - Forde, Steven. “What Does Locke Expect Us to Know?” The Review of Politics 68, no. 2 (2006): 232–258.
    Abstract: “Locke claims that his moral and political teaching is capable of a fully rational demonstration. It would seem then that Lockean citizens are expected to grasp the rational bases of their regime. But Locke was notoriously vague or incomplete… More

  • The Cambridge Companion to Locke’s ‘Essay Concerning Human Understanding’

    - The Cambridge Companion to Locke's 'Essay Concerning Human Understanding', ed. Lex Newman (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
    First published in 1689, John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding is widely recognised as among the greatest works in the history of Western philosophy. The Essay puts forward a systematic empiricist theory of mind, detailing how all ideas and… More

  • “The Charitable John Locke”

    - Steven Forde, "The Charitable John Locke," Review of Politics, 71 (2009), 428-458.
    Locke’s political philosophy, like any that centers on individual rights such as property rights, raises the question whether human beings have any duty to charity, or economic assistance, to the needy. Locke’s works contain some strong statements… More

  • The Lockean Commonwealth

    - Ross Corbett, The Lockean Commonwealth (Albany: SUNY Press, 2009).
    The tension between executive prerogative in times of emergency and the importance of maintaining and preserving the rule of law has been a perennial concern for modern democratic states. The Lockean Commonwealth reappraises John Locke’s contribution to… More

  • Locke and the Compass of Human Understanding by John Yolton

    - Yolton, John. Locke and the Compass of Human Understanding: A Selective Commentary on the 'Essay'. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
    From the publisher: “The Essay Concerning Human Understanding is John Locke’s most important work, and through this selective commentary, first published in 1970, Professor Yolton concentrates our attention on the more interesting and… More

  • The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke

    - C.B. MacPherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962).
    This seminal work by political philosopher C.B. Macpherson was first published by the Clarendon Press in 1962, and remains of key importance to the study of liberal-democratic theory half-a-century later. In it, Macpherson argues that the chief difficulty of… More

  • John Locke: Problems and Perspectives

    - John Locke: Problems and Perspectives, ed. John Yolton (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
    Originally published in 1969, the impetus for this collection came from a conference on the Thought of John Locke held at York University, Toronto in 1966. Written in the co-operative spirit of the conference, the essays collected here were intended to… More

  • “Mixed Modes in John Locke’s Moral and Political Philosophy”

    - Steven Forde, "'Mixed Modes' in John Locke's Moral and Political Philosophy," Review of Politics 4 (2011), 581-608.
    The moral theory of “mixed modes” John Locke presents in his Essay concerning Human Understanding is beset with paradoxes. On the one hand, he tells us that all mixed modes, including moral concepts, are “arbitrary” mental constructs.… More

  • Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought

    - Scott Yenor, Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought, Baylor University Press, 2012.
    From the publisher: With crisp prose and intellectual fairness, Family Politics traces the treatment of the family in the philosophies of leading political thinkers of the modern world. What is family? What is marriage? In an effort to address contemporary… More

Multimedia

  • Thomas L. Pangle: Locke and Civic Education

    - Thomas L. Pangle, "Locke and Civic Education," Kenyon College, 1990.
    Thomas Pangle of the University of Texas (then at the University of Toronto) lectures on John Locke at Kenyon College in 1990.

  • Steven Smith: Lectures on the Second Treatise

    - Steven Smith, "Introduction to Political Philosophy," Yale Open Courses, Autumn 2006.
    Professor Steven Smith’s lectures on Locke’s Second Treatise from Yale’s “Introduction to Political Philosophy,” available through Yale Open Courses. Autumn 2006. Constitutional Government: Locke, Second Treatise (1-5)… More

  • Jeremy Waldron: Lecture on Locke’s First Treatise

    - Jeremy Waldron, “The Mother Too Hath Her Title: John Locke on Motherhood and Equality," Contemporary Civilization Course-Wide Lecture at Columbia University, November 12th, 2010.
    “The Mother Too Hath Her Title: John Locke on Motherhood and Equality”

  • Thomas West and Steven Forde: John Locke on the Foundations of Natural Law and Natural Right

    - Thomas West and Steven Forde, "John Locke on the Foundations of Natural Law and Natural Right," for the Braniff Graduate Salon, October 17, 2008
    Public discussion with Dr. Thomas West and Dr. Steven Forde of University of North Texas on “John Locke on the Foundations of Natural Law and Natural Right,” for the Braniff Graduate Salon, sponsored by the students of Braniff Graduate School,… More

  • Nathan Tarcov: John Locke’s Philosophy

    - Nathan Tarcov, "John Locke's Philosophy," Kenyon College, 1990.
    Nathan Tarcov of the University of Chicago lectures on John Locke at Kenyon College in 1990.