ABSTRACT
No explication of Locke’s political philosophy will accommodate everything Locke said in the course of his forty years of moral and political theorizing. Nevertheless, one account does capture much more of what is philosophically central, distinctive, and interesting in Locke’s political thought than alternative accounts. On this account, Locke defends an essentially secular, rights-based, liberal individualism. In this essay I present a streamlined and philosophically sympathetic version of this Locke; I do not attempt to explicate or rebut alternative understandings of Locke. I draw primarily from Locke’s two most important and best-known works in political philosophy-the Second Treatise (ST) from his Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration (LCT). I also draw upon Locke’s early lectures, Essays on the Law of Nature (ELN), and some passages from Locke’s First Treatise (FT) and his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (ECHU). My presentation starts with the Lockean state of nature and persons’ natural and property rights and moves on to the inconveniences of the state of nature, the contractual formation of government, and the conditions under which political power may justly be resisted. I then turn to Locke’s basic case for religious toleration and the place of religious toleration within Locke’s overall political doctrine.
