The Empire of Habit: John Locke, Discipline, and the Origins of Liberalism

169 Pages·2016·3.899 MB·English

by  John Baltes

THE EMPIRE OF HABIT
JOHN LOCKE, DISCIPLINE, AND THE ORIGINS OF LIBERALISM
JOHN BALTES
THE EMPIRE OF HABIT
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THE EMPIRE OF HABIT
John Locke, Discipline,
and the Origins of Liberalism
John Baltes
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Copyright © 2016 by John Baltes
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no
part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2016
University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.urpress.com
and Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-58046-561-8
An earlier version of chapter 2 was published as “Locke’s Inverted
Quarantine: Discipline, Panopticism, and the Making of the Liberal
Subject,” in the Review of Politics 75, no. 2 (2013): 173–92, © 2013 by the
University of Notre Dame, and is reprinted with permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baltes, John, author.
Title: The empire of habit : John Locke, discipline, and the origins of
liberalism / John Baltes.
Description: Rochester, NY : University of Rochester Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016000662 | ISBN 9781580465618 (hardcover : alk.
paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Locke, John, 1632–1704. Essay concerning human
understanding. | Locke, John, 1632–1704. Some thoughts concerning
education. | L iberalism—Philosophy. | Knowledge, Theory of—Early
works to 1800.
Classification: LCC B1294 .B34 2016 | DDC 320.51/2092—dc23 LC record
available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000662
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1 Locke on Religious Crisis and Civil War: Nominalism,
Skepticism, and the Essay in Context 22
Locke’s Moral Critique 24
Ethical Naturalism and Generous Theism 30
Conclusion: “The Law of Fashion” 40
2 Locke’s Inverted Quarantine: Discipline, Panopticism,
and the Making of the Liberal Subject 43
Minds like Brooks 45
Lockean Panopticism 47
Disciplinary Psychology 50
Center and Periphery 55
Conclusion: Sticky Subjects 58
3 Locke’s Labor Loosed: Discipline and the Idle 62
A Plague of Disorder 66
The Religious Context 75
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vi contents
The Plague State 78
Conclusion: Locke’s Labor 86
4 Locke the Landgrave: Inegalitarian Discipline 90
Locke in Context: Shaftesbury’s Pen or
Ashcraft’s Radical? 92
Waldron’s Locke 104
The Democratic Intellect 106
Teleology and Equality 109
Conclusion: Locke’s Inegalitarian Discipline 112
Notes 119
Bibliography 145
Index 153
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The process of writing a book is humbling. As I have come to
understand, having anything worthwhile to say is less a matter of
inspiration and more a process of protracted, sometimes frustrat-
ing grinding. Rough ideas must be ground by something hard to
sharpen them to a point that tells. If what I now offer draws any
blood at all, it is less my mettle and more the edge my friends
and colleagues polished.
I wish to thank Colin Bird, Joshua Dienstag, George Klosko,
Allan Megill, and Stephen White, who helped me discover the
seed of this project. I am also indebted to P. J. Brendese, Andrew
Douglas, Phil Enns, Sara Henary, Steven Kelts, John Lombardini,
Amy Oakes, Dennis Smith, Joel Schwartz, Simon Stow, and Matt
Wilhite for their careful reading, comments, and discussion on
any number of occasions. I presented earlier versions of these
ideas at the University of Virginia political theory colloquium
series, the William and Mary faculty colloquium series, the
Nazarbayev University faculty colloquium series, the American
Political Science Association, and the Western Political Science
Association, and I greatly benefited from the comments offered
at these panels by the participants.
I have found that my students often hear me say things that
are smarter than what I mean. I owe their discerning ears a great
debt, especially those present in my seminar on Locke. Chris
Sardo’s research assistance was unfailingly careful, precise, and
timely. I owe thanks to the anonymous reviewers of the University
of Rochester Press for their help in refining the final manuscript:
their reviews were the adamantine stuff a good polish demands,
no rougher than was necessary. Ryan Peterson’s editorial stew-
ardship was everything I could have asked. He was patient, unfail-
ingly generous, and supportive throughout.
My private debts are legion and I will continue to thank you all
for making this possible.
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ABBREVIATIONS
E John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
EHU John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
L Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
RC John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity
TT John Locke, Two Treatises of Government
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