Locke and the Nature of Political Authority

Review of Politics 77 (1):1-22 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper aims to illuminate the ongoing significance of Locke’s political philosophy. It argues that the legitimacy of political authority lies, for Locke, in the extent to which it collaborates with individuals so as to allow them to be themselves more effectively, and in its answerability in principle to the consent such individuals should thereby give it. The first section discusses how the free will inevitably asserts its authority; the second shows the inevitability of the will’s incorporation of authority as a kind of prosthesis, which in turn transforms the operation of the will; and the third treats the issue of consent, arguing that Locke is less interested in individual acts of consent than in the ways in which structures of authority reflect their answerability to consent by being shaped so as to honour the beings whose capacity to consent is definitive for them.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Normative Consent and Authority.Daniel Koltonski - 2013 - Journal of Moral Philosophy 10 (3):255-275.
Accountability and Parenthood in Locke's Theological Ethics.Daniel Layman - 2014 - History of Philosophy Quarterly 31 (2):101-118.
Power and Authority in John Locke.Izuchukwu Marcel Onyeocha - 1992 - Dissertation, The Catholic University of America

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-03-25

Downloads
1 (#1,769,934)

6 months
1 (#1,040,386)

Historical graph of downloads

Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Shannon Hoff
Memorial University of Newfoundland

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references