Locke: Political Philosophy, Misc

Le relazioni dell'individuo, già nel pensiero di Locke - uno dei padri dell'individualismo metodologico -, da un lato costituiscono il singolo, dall’altro lo limitano. Questa dialettica di costituzione-limitazione fa sì che l’individuo debba intendersi più che come un "dato" originario come una "costruzione" e che, in secondo luogo, il limite alla sua azione sia posto non solo dall’esterno, ossia dalla presenza di altri individui, ma anche dall’interno, ossia dalla sua stessa costituzione ontologica.

Locke refrained from engaging explicitly with Hobbes in any of his writings. Locke’s policy of non-engagement should be interpreted, we argue, neither as evidence of his lack of interest in (or ignorance of) Hobbes’s arguments, nor as an attempt to conceal from the uninitiated Locke’s covert Hobbesian commitments. Locke’s silence reveals rather than conceals. What it reveals is an absolute determination to “distinguish between the business of civil government and that of religion, and to mark the true bounds between them”. (...) Approached in this way, precisely because Locke’s account of the “business of civil government” says nothing about ecclesiastical government, the second of Two Treatises can be read, in its entirety, as a powerful critical response to Hobbes. To see why, it is necessary to grasp that Part iii of Leviathan (“Of a Christian Common-wealth”) is integral to Hobbes’s positive argumentative purposes in the work. (shrink)

In this chapter, Daniel Layman argues that there is not one Lockean conception of IR but rather (at least) two mutually incompatible conceptions: one a Ciceronian moral cosmopolitanism and the other a colonialism centered on British interests. Opposing Locke’s philosophical writings with his economic works, Layman’s reading acknowledges the contradictions and incoherence present in Locke’s IR theory.

John Locke’s role in the advent of modernity has been debated widely. His work has been (ab)used by those arguing from libertarian, democratic, communitarian, socialist, feminist, or postcolonial points of view, either portraying him as a forefather of their preferred political theory or as an antagonist to their avowed political and philosophical goals. In this paper, we are primarily concerned with highlighting the importance of the executive’s prerogative in Locke’s philosophy, as we argue that this concept, often banished to the (...) side-lines, is indeed central to Locke’s political theory. This partial neglect entails that some of the most popular readings of Locke are potentially based on faulty premises. We focus on how Locke’s prerogative is antithetical to the project of seeing Locke as a forefather of libertarianism. Furthermore, this paper’s arguments could also support challenges to interpretations of Locke as an early and important proponent of democracy. Rather than seeking to find support for modern theories through anachronistic and dubious readings of Locke, we focus on how he conceived of an exceedingly strong executive whose actions are exclusively restricted by the public good. We conclude that there is good reason to consider his philosophy proto-utilitarian, something that further highlights the conflict with libertarianism. As such, we conclude that libertarian or democratic theories postulating Locke as their direct predecessor should be re-examined to account for these findings. (shrink)

Abstractabstract:This paper explores the tension between the role the magistrate plays in Locke's letters on toleration and the theory of sexual morality he develops in his analysis of the case of incest at the church at Corinth in his "Paraphrases" on Paul's Epistles. A son had married his father's ex-wife, a practice decried as "heinous" by seventeenth-century commentators. Contrary to the political uses of this case by members of the Anglican Church, Locke argues that moral communities should police themselves through (...) private censure. At first glance, this sits uncomfortably with the view that the magistrate should punish adulterers and those who engage in "heinous enormities." This paper seeks to reconcile these two visions by showing how the incentive structure of the civil law was meant to supplement the maximalist moral commitments of the religious communities that make up society. (shrink)

This paper argues that Locke offers qualified support for male-male intimacy. While one can find denunciations of sodomy and ‘debauchery’ in his work, these claims are embedded in a natural and divine law framework that did not formally specify how to define much less morally characterize these actions. At the very least, Locke makes it difficult to strictly condemn sodomy or other homosexual acts as inherently immoral. This paper will explore three areas of interest: 1) Locke’s Paraphrases of the Pauline (...) epistles in which he argues that Paul’s interest in sexuality concerns temple idolatry rather than a trans-generational sexual ethic; 2) the empirical terms in which he appears to reject the viability of sodomy and his interest in native sexual practices show that he tolerated alternative conjugal frameworks; and 3) the curious case of his own sexuality, the passionate letters he shared with close male friends suggest that sexual obligations to society were not permanent and that as one ages alternative forms of love may be permitted. (shrink)

John Locke (1632–1704) wird an mehreren Stellen von Rawls ausdrücklich als Referenzautor hervorgehoben. Insbesondere für die Theorie der Gerechtigkeit wird die „Idee des Gesellschaftsvertrags, wie wir sie bei Locke, Rousseau und Kant finden“ als Ausgangspunkt genannt. Allerdings kann Lockes politische Philosophie gerade im Hinblick auf die Architektur der Vertragstheorie nur in einem sehr allgemeinen Verständnis als Vorbild für den neokontraktualistischen Ansatz von Rawls gelten.

America’s Philosopher examines how John Locke has been interpreted, reinterpreted, and misinterpreted over three centuries of American history. The influence of polymath philosopher John Locke can still be found in a dizzying range of fields, as his writings touch on issues of identity, republicanism, and the nature of knowledge itself. Claire Rydell Arcenas’s new book tells the story of Americans’ longstanding yet ever-mutable obsession with this English thinker’s ideas, a saga whose most recent manifestations have found the so-called Father of (...) Liberalism held up as a right-wing icon. The first book to detail Locke’s trans-Atlantic influence from the eighteenth century until today, America’s Philosopher shows how and why interpretations of his ideas have captivated Americans in ways few other philosophers—from any nation—ever have. As Arcenas makes clear, each generation has essentially remade Locke in its own image, taking inspiration and transmuting his ideas to suit the needs of the particular historical moment. Drawing from a host of vernacular sources to illuminate Locke’s often contradictory impact on American daily and intellectual life from before the Revolutionary War to the present, Arcenas delivers a pathbreaking work in the history of ideas. (shrink)

Abstract:What if a prostitute had expressed the idea of individual rights to property based on labor, even before John Locke? The London Jilt presents Cornelia, a prostitute who endorses her stigmatized job on the grounds that sexual labor is the same as any other profession. By analyzing self-ownership embodied in the prostitute figure, I claim that The London Jilt significantly anticipates Locke's labor theory. Cornelia adopts the emerging discourse of labor and property and situates prostitutes as economic subjects who turn (...) female sexuality into profits. This fiction also reveals marriage is an unfair financial trade that exploits women's sexual labor. (shrink)

This research analyzes the theoretical answer received by one of the factors that cause the so-called Price Revolution in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, specifically the aspect related to the alterations in the monetary values ​​of pieces of vellón and silver in Castile and England. In both countries, these episodes were rigorously analyzed from a theoretical point of view, as can be seen from the study of the monetary ideas of the period that were developed in these territories. (...) In this study, in light of the historical events that took place, we analyze the foundations of the monetary thought of Juan de Mariana and John Locke who oppose the the alteration of money by the sovereign for fiscal reasons, as well as their different reception. (shrink)

Many years ago, professors used to teach their students that Locke wrote the Two Treatises of Government to refute Hobbes. The demolition of this thesis by Peter Laslett and others had one curious result: scholars ceased to pay much attention to the relationship between the two greatest English philosophers of the seventeenth century. This trend was perhaps reinforced by an understandable suspicion of Leo Strauss’s thesis that Locke was really a closet Hobbesian. It thus came to be accepted that it (...) was somehow intellectually disreputable to suppose that there was any meaningful dialogue between Locke and the author of Leviathan.A serious reassessment of the relationship between the two philosophers is long overdue... (shrink)

The dominant public philosophy of the United States of America has long been some version of liberalism--dedicated to individual liberty, equal rights, religious freedom, government by consent, and established limits on political power. Today, however, we find ourselves in unusual times, when the major political parties have powerful and growing wings that embrace decidedly illiberal public philosophies. On the Left, critical theory eschews Enlightenment rationalism and liberal ideas of toleration and individual liberty as structures that serve to support inequality and (...) oppression. On the Right, conservative scholars excoriate liberalism for privileging an ideal of individual autonomy that eats away at the civilizing bonds of family, tradition, religion, and country. What seems new here is not the critiques themselves, but the power and popularity of political movements that openly and proudly reject the first principles of America's long-dominant public philosophy. Can the center hold? Can the principles of 1776 survive? Or has liberalism run its course? With these questions in the air, this book proposes to return with fresh eyes to the beginning of liberalism and the political philosophy of John Locke. Instead of looking at Lockean liberalism as a simple and timeworn ideological program, the essays reexamine Locke's project by remaining alive to the complexity and nuance with which he addressed his subject. The Locke that emerges is indeed an ambitious and radical thinker, but one not as imprudent or unmindful of custom as his conservative critics would have it, nor as tolerant of oppression as his progressive critics aver. (shrink)

This article revisits long-standing questions about consent, membership and emigration in Locke’s thought. Commentators such as A John Simmons have argued that Locke opens political membership to both express consenters and some kind of tacit consenters, and not just to the former, as some have suggested. Simmons’s reading seems to render Locke more sensible in that it does not exclude large numbers of people from membership or burden the few members with all the civic duties, and also in that it (...) allows at least tacit-consenting members the right to relocate, while this right is denied to express-consenting members. Against this reading, the article shows, by resolving seemingly conflicting claims in the text, that people become members only by express consent. It also responds to the criticism that the express-consent-only reading would limit membership to a few and so would render Locke’s account implausible from a practical point of view. The article then addresses the purported restriction Locke imposes on express consenters’ right to emigrate, arguing that the restriction concerns the change of membership and not the right to relocate. (shrink)

This article presents a reinterpretation of John Locke's contribution to debates about the interest rate in the seventeenth century. It suggests that his argument that England should maintain the ‘natural’ rate, rather than impose a lower rate, was motivated by his theological, moral, and social conceptions of credit and its dependence on trust. In order to solve the endemic shortage of metal coin limiting the growth of monetary exchange in England, Locke stressed that the higher, ‘natural’ rate of interest would (...) facilitate interpersonal borrowing and lending among neighbours, allowing currency to flow more freely around the country. By contrast, while he acknowledged that institutional creditors such as goldsmith-bankers could quicken the circulation of money by issuing debt instruments like bills of exchange, he saw institutional credit as a threat to the moral community. Not only did he question how people could rationally trust financiers without any epistemic apprehension of their personal probity, but he moreover doubted whether individuals accumulating so much money were likely to act trustworthily. Finally, using an otherwise unstudied dialogue about the Bank of England, this article argues Locke extended his criticisms about the threats posed by private banks to the country's nascent system of public credit. (shrink)

The doctrine of the image of God is often regarded as grounding human dignity in something permanent and unchanging that transcends our attitudes and behaviors. Yet we persistently encounter the argument that particular human individuals or groups have acted so as to forfeit their moral standing as fellow humans. They are bestialized, categorized as non-human animals, lifting ordinary restraints on punishment. I examine the logic of this argument in John Locke, Thomas Aquinas, and contemporary felony disenfranchisement, showing how it involves (...) slippage between the unobjectionable notion that specific rights may in particular circumstances be forfeited, and the deeply troubling claim that one’s moral standing as human can as such be forfeited. I argue that an apparently similar rhetoric of dehumanization employed by Frederick Douglass, in contrast, refrains from stripping the opponent of moral considerability. (shrink)

This article examines John Locke’s theory of subjectivity to challenge the recent critical tendency to associate biopolitics and empiricism. Michel Foucault, most notably among modern theorists of biopolitics, proposes that the Lockean man, or an interest-seeking animal, constitutes the paradigm of a person that remains subject to biopower. Such understanding of empiricism by biopolitical theorists is, however, reductive because Locke’s view of human subjectivity is fundamentally equivocal. As I demonstrate by analyzing his discussion of freedom, action, and desire in An (...) Essay Concerning Human Understanding and other writings, Locke admits the possibility for a human being to think and to act freely, although in the process of restricting the capacity for free action. Hence, the theorists’ simplistic view of Locke rather reflects the limits of their own conception of subjectivity, especially their behavioristic premises. As they consider a person as a mere machine of survival without agency and initiative, they preclude the possibility of overcoming biopower at the fundamental level. In demonstrating contradictions and tensions within Locke’s empiricism, this article then proposes the ways in which Locke can show a way beyond the critical impasse in political theory in elucidating the power of acting against the chain of causality. (shrink)

Abstract:Many scientists argue that the world is becoming increasingly dominated by human activity, much to the detriment of the natural world. In what scholars have dubbed the Anthropocene, the current geological epoch during which time human activity has been the dominating force over climate and the environment, many questions of environmental ethics have arisen. Who does the earth belong to? What is the relationship between humans and the environment? What is the moral standing of non-human life? Locke and Rousseau provide (...) varying answers to these questions, which are central to discussions of environmental ethics. In many ways, Locke and Rousseau's answers are opposed to each other, suggesting a differing world view when it comes to environmental ethics. Locke's understanding of environmental ethics seems to dominate, and perhaps even cause, the onset of the Anthropocene, but Rousseau's response, and a potential turn toward his understanding of environmental ethics marks an ideological shift in the way that humans understand their relationship with the world around them. This paper argues that the writings of Locke and Rousseau correspond to different stages of the Anthropocene with significant effects on both environmental ethics and environmental governance and policy. (shrink)

This article aims to investigate Alain Locke and Richard Rorty’s accounts of cultural pluralism. First, I argue that Rorty’s anti-foundationalism and Locke’s critique of absolutes are similar with respect to the nature of value. I then explain their respective conceptions of culture and cultural pluralism. Finally, I argue that their fundamental differences with each other in regards to culture and cultural pluralism lie in their differing theories of value. Whereas Rorty’s nominalist understanding of value only finds the relativity and contingency (...) of culture and value, Locke’s functionalist theory of value allows for the objectivity and universality of culture and value. To make these differences explicit, I introduce a distinction between value content and value process. If my reading of Locke and Rorty’s accounts of cultural pluralism is convincing, then we can find a more robust view of tolerance in Locke’s version of cultural pluralism than in Rorty’s. -/- . (shrink)

This article offers a rejoinder to Felix Waldmann. In a critical note published in Locke Studies, Waldmann challenges our recent reconstruction of Locke’s thesis, developed across the Second Treatise of Government, that humans cannot possibly agree to subject themselves to absolute rule. Call this thesis No Contractual Absolutism. Our reconstruction, Waldmann objects, “neglects a basic datum of scholarship”: i.e., that Locke’s Second Treatise intended to counter Filmer’s political theory. Our reply is two-pronged. First, we argue that No Contractual Absolutism cannot (...) plausibly be construed as an attack on Filmer, since it challenges a thesis that he did not hold. Indeed, as for him no form of government can be contractual in origin, Filmer would have agreed with Locke that absolute rule cannot be instituted by agreement. As our initial article suggested, the standard view about whom the polemical target is of the Second Treatise requires qualification with respect to No Contractual Absolutism. Second, we contend that Waldmann’s concerns rest on discipline-specific methodological assumptions, which are unhelpful for the kind of analytical reconstruction we advanced. We conclude with a plea for methodological pluralism in the study of Locke’s thought. (shrink)

Dem Liberalismus wird gerne vorgeworfen, etwa von Carl Schmitt, dass er keinen Inhalt habe, sondern sich an andere politische Strömungen anlehnen müsse, um politische Substanz zu gewinnen. Er sei zunächst bürgerlich gewesen, dann national, dann sozial, dann neoliberal oder ultrakapitalistisch. Selbst sei er aber nichts. Man könnte Ähnliches freilich ebenso gut vom Konservatismus oder anderen modernen politischen Strömungen behaupten. Auch der Konservatismus hat viele Arten. Es gibt ihn als liberalen, romantischen, sozialen, ja in den 1920er Jahren, sogar als revolutionären. Politische (...) Sammelbegriffe können spannungsreich sein und irgendwann einmal sogar implodieren. (shrink)

This book analyzes the effect of John Locke's political thought on American political culture today. By analyzing nearly the entirety of Locke's political and philosophical writings, this book shows that Locke's thought has helped to cultivate the incivility seen in recent years in American politics.

The Problem of Thought Posed by the Creation of the Bank of England -- The Theory of Interest and the Natural Right -- From Savings to Financial Regulation -- Excursus - From the Credit Function to the Institution of Money -- Money, Pledge and Natural Right -- The Par Value and The Monetary and Financial System -- Conclusion. The First Step Towards Democracy.

Locke scholarship has been flourishing in Japan for several decades, but its output is largely unknown to the West. This collection makes available in English for the first time the fruits of recent Japanese research, opening up the possibility of advancing Locke studies on an international scale. Covering three important areas of Locke's philosophical thought – knowledge and experimental method, law and politics, and religion and toleration – this volume criticizes established interpretations and replaces them with novel alternatives, breaking away (...) from standard narratives and providing fresh ways of looking at Locke's relationship with philosophers such as Boyle, Berkeley and Hume. The specific topics that have been selected are ones that continue to have important contemporary moral and political implications, from constitutionalism and toleration to marriage and the death penalty. Applying Locke's views to 21st-century questions, this collection presents provocative readings of the defining aspects of Locke's philosophical thought, stimulating current debates and heralding a new era of collaborative work for Locke scholars around the world. (shrink)

This book examines John Locke as a theorist of migration, immigration, and the movement of peoples. It outlines the contours of the public discourse surrounding migration in the seventeenth century and situates Locke's in-depth involvement in these debates. The volume presents a variety of undercurrents in Locke's writing - his ideas on populationism, naturalization, colonization and the right to withdrawal, the plight of refugees, and territorial rights - which have great import in present-day debates about migration. Departing from the popular (...) extant literature that sees Locke advocating for a strong right to exclude foreigners, the author proposes a Lockean theory of immigration that recognizes the fundamental right to emigrate, thus, catering to an age wrought with terrorism, xenophobia and economic inequality. A unique and compelling contribution, the volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of political theory, political philosophy, history of international politics, international relations, international political economy, public policy, seventeenth century English history, migration and citizenship studies, and moral philosophy. (shrink)

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke sit together in the canon of political thought but are rarely treated in common historical accounts. This book narrates their intertwined careers during the Restoration period, when the two men found themselves in close proximity and entangled in many of the same political conflicts. Bringing new source material to bear, In the Shadow of Leviathan establishes the influence of Hobbesian thought over Locke, particularly in relation to the preeminent question of religious toleration. Excavating Hobbes's now (...) forgotten case for a prudent, politique toleration gifted by sovereign power, Jeffrey R. Collins argues that modern, liberal thinking about toleration was transformed by Locke's gradual emancipation from this Hobbesian mode of thought. This book investigates those landmark events - the civil war, Restoration, the popish plot, the Revolution of 1688 - which eventually forced Locke to confront the limits of politique toleration, and to devise an account of religious freedom as an inalienable right. (shrink)

The article presents a basic perception regarding social contract theory which is considered to be one of the most well-known and influential theories in western political philosophy. By exploring the concepts of social contract theory suggested by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, an attempt is made to reveal various features and characteristics of the natural state. The article discusses the general description of the state of nature as well as the process of establishing a social contract as a means of (...) formation of civil society. (shrink)

Introduction Le temps, abordé au point de vue social, a fait l’objet de travaux – chez Norbert Elias notamment – qui permettent de dégager une compréhension de ce dernier comme régulateur social, voire comme outil de gouvernement. Le temps est en effet conçu comme un instrument souple, à l’usage du pouvoir, pour permettre l’intériorisation de normes facilitant la coordination des activités à l’intérieur d’une société, sans user de contraintes apparentes ou physiques comme la violence. En ce s...

European Journal of Political Theory, Volume 21, Issue 2, Page 230-252, April 2022. The apparent inconsistency between Locke’s commitment to legalism and his explicit endorsement of the extra-legal power of prerogative has confounded many readers. Among those who don’t ignore or dismiss it, the common approach is to qualify the role or scope of prerogative. The article advocates the opposite approach. It argues that Locke’s legalism should be understood within the context of his oft neglected conception of political liberty in (...) terms of self-government. This not only allows for the reconciliation of Locke’s legalism with his endorsement of extra-legal powers, but also provides a fuller, more accurate account of the role of law and of political liberty in Locke’s theory. (shrink)

La relación entre patrimonio y derechos políticos en la obra de John Locke ha sido ampliamente discutida. Por un lado, se encuentran posiciones como las de Kendall y Tully que atribuyen un carácter democrático a la concepción lockeana sobre la sociedad civil. Por otro, interpretaciones como las de Ashcraft que le asignan un sesgo revolucionario e igualitario, próximo a la concepción de los Levellers. Sin embargo, a la luz de una serie de documentos, es posible discutir estas interpretaciones, como ya (...) lo han hecho diversos intérpretes parcialmente. Se mostrará aquí que Locke supone que la discusión parlamentaria compete a quienes, representando a los diferentes sectores productivos, discuten la promoción de sus actividades y que los trabajadores, al no disponer de la formación necesaria para la discusión sobre los asuntos públicos, no son considerados para participar del ejercicio parlamentario sino sólo de una resistencia excepcional. (shrink)

The early paragraphs of John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government describe a poetic idyll of property acquisition widely supposed by contemporary theorists and historians to have cast the template for imperial possessions in the New World. This reading ignores the surprises lurking in Locke’s later chapters on conquest, usurpation, and tyranny, where he affirms that native rights to lands and possessions survive to succeeding generations. Locke warned his readers that this “will seem a strange doctrine, it being quite contrary to (...) the practice of the world.” His doctrine of native right is equally strange to recent scholars who see in Lockean theory the ideological prototype for England’s colonial expropriation in the “vacant lands” of North America. This interpretation, dignified by the elusive principle of vacuum domicilium, is considerably weakened when Locke’s arguments are placed in the historical context of the sixteenth and early seventeenth-century English colonial experience. Locke’s Second Treatise, with its literary flourish of a vast and idyllic state of nature, was written in the full appreciation of Amerindian agriculture, its established populations, the acknowledgement of native property rights, and the policy and practice of purchasing land from the native inhabitants. (shrink)

Freedom has no univocal meaning in Locke's work, despite its centrality. It is understood as a duty and right, but also as a power, or, as we will hold here, as a state. The successive modifications of the idea of freedom between An Essay concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government, between the editions and in relation to early or later texts, such as The Reasonableness of Christianity, allow us to think of freedom as a problem, rather than as (...) an evidence. Freedom affirms itself as the most sublime characteristic of human nature, as well as the symptom of her precariousness and corruption. Freedom could be compared with reason, as Locke intends to investigate the limits of both, without ever thinking them as franchisable. (shrink)

John Locke's treatises on government make frequent reference to the Hebrew Bible, while references to the New Testament are almost completely absent. To date, scholarship has not addressed this surprising characteristic of the treatises. In this book, Yechiel Leiter offers a Hebraic reading of Locke's fundamental political text. In doing so, he formulates a new school of thought in Lockean political interpretation and challenges existing ones. He shows how a grasp of the Hebraic underpinnings of Locke's political theory resolves many (...) of the problems, as well as scholarly debates, that are inherent in reading Locke. More than a book about the political theory of John Locke, this volume is about the foundational ideas of western civilization. While focused on Locke's Hebraism, it demonstrates the persistent relevance of the biblical political narrative to modernity. It will generate interest among students of Locke and political theory; philosophy and early modern history; and within Bible study communities. (shrink)

Pretende-se abordar como os argumentos luteranos ─ de natureza constitucional das "magistraturas inferiores" e de direito privado ─ acerca do direito de resistência, desenvolvidos no final da década de 1520 e início de 1530, foram recepcionados no _Segundo Tratado Sobre o Governo Civil_, de John Locke, escrito no século XVII. O argumento de direito privado compreende que todo governante que abandona as boas ações e se dedica a cometer atos tirânicos se despoja de sua autoridade e, consequentemente, deve ser tratado (...) como uma pessoa privada, portanto, sujeita ao lícito revide, o que configura uma espécie de legítima defesa. O argumento constitucional das "magistraturas inferiores" afirma a possibilidade de órgãos intermediários entre o governante e o povo estarem legitimados para oferecer resistência às tiranias. Em John Locke, ambos os argumentos objetivam a solução do problema da tirania para se obter liberdade política e religiosa. (shrink)

In Locke’s economic and politic thinking is possible appraise some articulations that connect the teological, the economic and the politic. The humans work for divine decree and the labor is an economic concept inasmuch as it is the activity that yields private ownership, whose possession entails a natural right for all individuals. Safeguarding this right is liability of the government and of the state institutions. For Locke the market is previous to the civilian society, trade’s regulative structure sets the guidelines (...) of the governmental action, so that money’s circulation should not be interfered directly by the sovereign power neither leading it under particular politic interests. Thus, it is can find out an ontology of market in lockean thought, insomuch as trade space’s existence takes up the natural laws and project them in the space`s political. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é dar relevo à presença da argumentação histórica e antropológica nas obras publicadas por John Locke entre 1689 e 1695. Essa orientação defende a existência de uma diversidade de povos e costumes ao redor do mundo, tomando como base as comunidades longínquas descritas nos relatos de viagens. Entre os tipos de povos considerados por Locke, existem sociedades ateias, idólatras, de moral filosófica e, poder-se-ia dizer, culmina com a defesa do cristianismo como a religião mais apropriada para (...) educar os trabalhadores das sociedades de apropriação ampliada. (shrink)

Η παρούσα ανακοίνωση επικεντρώνεται στο έργο Δεύτερη πραγματεία περί κυβερνήσεως του John Locke και ερευνά τους δύο θεμελιακούς άξονες της Δεύτερης πραγματείας, οι οποίοι εκφράζουν το σύνολο της πολιτικής θεωρίας του Locke. Αρχικά γίνεται αναφορά στη θεωρία περί καταπιστεύματος που αποτελεί και τη βάση της πολιτικής θεωρίας του Lοcke. Οι άνθρωποι προκειμένου να διαφυλάξουν τα δικαιώματά τους με κορυφαίο εκείνο της ζωής, προχωρούν από την πρότερη φυσική κατάσταση στην ενοποιημένη ανθρώπινη κατάσταση, η οποία ονομάζεται κοινότητα. Κατά τη φάση της συγκροτήσεως (...) της κοινότητας, τα μέλη της εκλέγουν τους εκπροσώπους τους, οι οποίοι αναλαμβάνουν το έργο της υπεράσπισης του συνόλου των ανθρωπίνων αναγκών. Η μετάθεση των εξουσιών από την κοινότητα προς τους εκπροσώπους γίνεται βάσει μίας συμφωνίας, η οποία συνάπτεται ανάμεσα στα μέλη της κοινότητας και στους εκπροσώπους. Η συμφωνία αυτή ονομάζεται καταπίστευμα. Η τήρηση του καταπιστεύματος είναι υποχρεωτική και από τα δύο συμβαλλόμενα μέρη, δηλαδή και από την κοινότητα και από τους εκπροσώπους. Η μη σωστή τήρηση των κανόνων του καταπιστεύματος από τους εκπροσώπους της κοινότητας συνιστά αθέτηση της αρχικής συμφωνίας. Στην περίπτωση αυτή τα μέλη έχουν την δυνατότητα να καταφύγουν στο νόμιμο δικαίωμα της πολιτικής ανυπακοής. Μπορούν δηλαδή να αφαιρέσουν την εξουσία από τους εκπροσώπους τους και να εκλέξουν νέους. Η πολιτική θεωρία του Locke βασίζεται με σαφήνεια στην αρχή της πλειοψηφίας. Ο θεμελιακός παράγοντας για τις πολιτικές αποφάσεις είναι η γνώμη της πλειοψηφίας των πολιτών. Φθάνουμε τώρα στον δεύτερο σημαντικό πυλώνα που συγκροτεί την πολιτική θεωρία του Locke. Αναφέρομαι στο δικαίωμα της ατομικής ιδιοκτησίας και της υπεράσπισής του. Το πολιτικό σύστημα που προκύπτει μέσα από την θεωρία του Locke στηρίζεται κατά ένα μεγάλο μέρος στο δικαίωμα της ατομικής ιδιοκτησίας. Συγκεκριμένα ο φιλόσοφος υποστηρίζει πως από τη στιγμή που ο άνθρωπος εναποθέτει την προσωπική του εργασία σε ένα υλικό αγαθό για την παραγωγή και την απόκτηση του, τότε αυτό το αγαθό περνά δικαιωματικά στην ιδιοκτησία του ανθρώπου. Η ατομική ιδιοκτησία αποτελεί σημαντικό παράγοντα για την επιβίωση του ατόμου. Στην πρότερη φυσική κατάσταση απαγορευόταν να οικειοποιηθεί ο άνθρωπος ένα αγαθό, γιατί τα πάντα ανήκαν στους πάντες. Όμως, όταν αυτό το αγαθό είναι απαραίτητο για την επιβίωση του ανθρώπου, τότε το φαινόμενο της οικειοποίησης και περαιτέρω της ιδιοκτησίας κρίνεται ως αναγκαίο. Στην προκείμενη περίπτωση δεν χρειάζεται η συγκατάθεση ολόκληρης της κοινότητας, όπως συνέβαινε κατά τη φυσική κατάσταση. Παρά ταύτα το προνόμιο της ατομικής ιδιοκτησίας διέπεται από όρια. Σύμφωνα με τον Locke το μέγεθος της ατομικής ιδιοκτησίας πρέπει να είναι τέτοιο, ώστε να καλύπτεται το σύνολο των αναγκών του ανθρώπου. Το αυξημένο μέγεθος της ατομικής ιδιοκτησίας ενός ατόμου εγκυμονεί τον κίνδυνο της απειλής των δικαιωμάτων των υπολοίπων μελών της κοινότητας. Αυτό που ένας άνθρωπος έχει ως περίσσευμα, κάποιος άλλος το στερείται. Ο Locke στο πλαίσιο μίας κοινωνικά δίκαιης πολιτικής προτείνει την αναδιανομή του εισοδήματος με ένα δίκαιο φορολογικό σύστημα. Με τη φορολόγηση στο περίσσευμα των υψηλών εισοδημάτων επιτυγχάνεται η αναδιανομή του πλούτου και κυρίως η κάλυψη των αναγκών των οικονομικά ασθενέστερων. Ο Locke με αυτόν τον τρόπο γίνεται ο εμπνευστής του κοινωνικού κράτους. (shrink)

This book examines John Locke’s political thought and activity surrounding oceans with a focus on law and freedom at sea. By examining Locke’s Two Treatises of Government alongside his work on England’s Board of Trade, this book shows how his theoretical ideas were translated into laws and policies about issues such as piracy and slavery.

RESUMENEl presente trabajo discute aquellas interpretaciones de Locke como un continuador del radicalismo leveller y un partidario inequívoco de la igualdad política y la democracia. Sostiene que su obra y pensamiento político persigue más bien un retorno a «our ancient government» y «its original constitution», esto es, un modelo de «monarquía moderada» o «mixta» que no sólo representa un retroceso democrático respecto al «republicanismo popular» de los levellers sino también una forma de gobierno en la que los elementos democráticos e (...) igualitarios quedan debilitados. PALABRAS CLAVELOCKE, LIBERALISMO–IGUALDAD–DEMOCRACIA–MONARQUÍAABSTRACTThis paper questions those interpretations of Locke as a follower of leveller radicalism and an unequivocal supporter of political equality and democracy. It argues that his work and political thought seek mainly a return to «our ancient government» and «its original constitution», that is, a model of “moderate or mixed monarchy” which not only represents a democratic regression compared to the «popular republicanism» of the Levellers but also a form of government in which the democratic and egalitarian elements are weakened. KEY WORDSLOCKE–LIBERALISM–EQUALITY–DEMOCRACY–MONARCHY. (shrink)