Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration

384 Pages·2003·1.15 MB·english

by  John Locke

Rethinking
the
Western
Tradition
The volumes in this series
seek to address the present debate
over the Western tradition
by reprinting key works of
that tradition along with essays
that evaluate each text from
di√erent perspectives.
EDITORIAL
COMMITTEE FOR
Rethinking
the
Western
Tradition
David Bromwich
Yale University
Gerald Graff
University of Illinois at Chicago
Geoffrey Hartman
Yale University
Samuel Lipman
(deceased)
The New Criterion
Gary Saul Morson
Northwestern University
Jaroslav Pelikan
Yale University
Marjorie Perloff
Stanford University
Richard Rorty
Stanford University
Alan Ryan
New College, Oxford
Ian Shapiro
Yale University
Frank M. Turner
Yale University
Allen W. Wood
Stanford University
Two Treatises of
Government
and
A Letter Concerning
Toleration
J O H N L O C K E
Edited and with an Introduction by
Ian Shapiro
with essays by
John Dunn
Ruth W. Grant
Ian Shapiro
Yale University Press
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund.
Copyright ∫ 2003 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part,
including illustrations, in any form (beyond that
copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public
press), without written permission from the publishers.
Set in Times Roman type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America by Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, New York.
ISBNs: 0-300-10017-5 (cl.)
0-300-10018-3 (pbk.)
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the Library of Congress and the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines
for permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contributors
John Dunn is Fellow of King’s College and Professor of Political Theory at the
University of Cambridge.
Ruth W. Grant is Professor of Political Science at Duke University.
Ian Shapiro is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor and Chair of the Department of
Political Science at Yale University.

Contents
Introduction: Reading Locke Today ix
Ian Shapiro
Note on the Texts xvi
Texts
Two Treatises of Government 1
The First Treatise: The False Principles and Foundation of Sir
Robert Filmer 7
The Second Treatise: An Essay Concerning the True Original,
Extent, and End of Civil Government 100
A Letter Concerning Toleration 211
Essays
Measuring Locke’s Shadow 257
John Dunn
John Locke on Women and the Family 286
Ruth W. Grant
John Locke’s Democratic Theory 309
Ian Shapiro
Index 341

Introduction:
Reading Locke Today
IAN SHAPIRO
Old books are read for many reasons. Intrinsic enjoyment is one. Coming to
grips with the past is another. Understanding the origins of the world we
live in is a third. Additional purposes become relevant when old books are
part of a received canon. Canonized texts may be heralded as repositories of
important truths. They might codify ideologies, whether dominant or sub-
versive. They might be objects of controversy as to their true meaning.
When canonized texts are works of political theory, it is usually because
they are thought to illuminate enduring fundamentals of political associa-
tion. Sometimes they gain additional notoriety when they move people,
individually or collectively, to political action.
John Locke’s mature writings about politics, collected here, are worth
reading for all these reasons at least. They have stood the test of time as
captivating works, in print more or less continuously for well over three
centuries and translated into all of the world’s major languages. They are
remarkable historical documents addressed to the turbulent political con-
flicts of Locke’s day, yet at the same time they transcend that and many
another particular context to which they have been deemed relevant. In
them Locke develops arguments about freedom of conscience and belief,
the relations between religion and politics, the nature of property, the fam-
ily, consent, majority rule, resistance, and the foundations of political legit-
imacy that have become perennials of political argument in the modern
West. Locke’s views on all these subjects are taken up in the interpretive
essays that follow the texts in this volume. Here I will limit myself to some
general remarks about his life and political writings.
As is frequently true with canonized texts—indeed this often facilitates
canonization—Locke’s central arguments are sufficiently complex that
they invite disputations about their true meaning. Similar controversy at-
tends the question whether Locke’s political writings stand independently
of, are derived from, or live in tension with, his voluminous writings on
philosophy and theology, and the degree to which his views evolved over
the course of his lifetime. He was born in 1632 and died in 1704, so that his