Page 130 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes By making labour the title to property and the source of value, Locke translated the rise of a new
class to power in terms of a new political economy. Although himself a mercantilist, Locke’s
economic philosophy helped to liberate the ingenious and industrious entrepreneur from paralyzing
force and custom (Ebenstein 1969: 390).
Ryan (1965: 220, 228-230) maintained that Macpherson frequently ignored what Locke was saying
in the text. Far from creating a political society in which the bourgeois class dominated the working
class, as Macpherson claimed, Locke was attempting to prove that everyone shared a common
interest in a constitutionally established political society. Dunn (1968b: 68-70) contended that
Locke was concerned with questions of social justice. In Locke’s under-standing, justice was linked
to ownership of property on the one hand and the laws of nature as the will of God on the other
hand. The individual’s interest in property was constrained by the duty he owed to God. Tully
(1980: 150-151) in a similar vein argued that through the concept of property, Locke tried to
provide the foundations of economic justice. It raised questions like what a just distribution of the
products of labour was, to what extent labour power was to be regulated, and whether labour
could be organized without exploitation.
Self-Assessment
Choose the correct option:
1. The reasonableness of christianity was published in ............... .
(i) 1695 (ii) 1660 (iii) 1690 (iv) 1692
2. The theory of ............... was an important theme in Locke’s political philosophy.
(i) race (ii) sex (iii) property (iv) politics
3. The first Treatise could have been written during ............... .
(i) 1681–1682 (ii) 1685–1686 (iii) 1683–1684 (iv) 1680–1681
4. The execution of ............... brought about a breach in the monarchial tradition.
(i) Charles II (ii) Charles I (iii) James II (iv) None of these.

7.4 Summary

• Locke was one of the most controversial and influential theorists in the entire history of
political thought. He wrote on epistemology, natural law, economics, political theory,
education, toleration and theology, making a difference to the intellectual world more than
anybody else since Aristotle. His ideas shaped the Enlightenment and the modern world.
“The heirs of Locke are, first, Berekely and Hume; second, those of the French philosophes
who did not belong to the school of Rousseau; third, and the philosophical Radicals; fourth,
with important accretions from Continental philosophy, Marx and his disciples”.
• Locke’s notion of property gave rise to some serious criticism, though such criticism normally
ignored the libertarian aspect of early liberalism, for property was linked to the idea of
equality and self-sufficiency. Locke’s emphases on constitutionalism, consent and toleration
have been integral components of modern political theory. Locke was also the first exponent
of the doctrine of civil society. Benefit and contract were synonymous, leading to his
formulation of a conception of government as a trust. Locke also expressed faith in the
ordinary man when he conceded a right to rebellion, making people the ultimate and final
arbiters of the government’s accountability. The radical dimension of this formulation could
be gauged from the fact that even a century after Locke, Burke was not even prepared to
grant proper democratic representation, and argued for virtual representation. If this historic
context is kept in mind, then the enormous significance of Locke’s libertarianism becomes

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