John Locke (1632–1704) English philosopher and politician. Born in Somerset, Locke studied medicine at Oxford before becoming secretary to Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury. His political views were developed against the background of, and were shaped by, the English Revolution.
Locke was a consistent opponent of absolutism (see p. 164) and is often portrayed as the philosopher of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, which established a constitutional monarchy in England. He is usually seen as a key thinker of early liberalism. His Two Treatises of Civil Government ([1690] 1965) used social contract theory to emphasise the importance of natural rights, identified as the right to ‘life, liberty and estate (property)’. As the purpose of government is to protect such rights, government should be limited and representative; however, the priority he accorded property rights prevented him from endorsing political equality or democracy in the modern sense. His A Letter Concerning Toleration ([1689] 1963) defends freedom of religious conscience on the grounds that rulers are always uncertain about the meaning of true religion; but he allowed that religion could be constrained if it threatened order, which meant, Locke argued, not extending toleration to atheists or Roman Catholics.
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