Book

Dunn, John, 1940- author.

The political thought of John Locke : an historical account of the argument of the 'Two treatises of government' / John Dunn.

London : Cambridge University Press, 1969.

xv, 290 pages ; 23 cm

This study provides a comprehensive reinterpretation of the meaning of Locke's political thought. John Dunn restores Locke's ideas to their exact context, and so stresses the historical question of what Locke in the Two Treatises of Government was intending to claim. By adopting this approach, he reveals the predominantly theological character of all Locke's thinking about politics and provides a convincing analysis of the development of Locke's thought. In a polemical concluding section, John Dunn argues that liberal and Marxist interpretations of Locke's politics have failed to grasp his meaning. Locke emerges as not merely a contributor to the development of English constitutional thought, or as a reflector of socio-economic change in seventeenth-century England, but as essentially a Calvinist natural theologian.

Locke, John, 1632-1704. Two treatises of government.

Locke, John, 1632-1704 -- Political and social views.

Political science -- Early works to 1800.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-284) and index.

Introduction: John Locke in history : the problems -- The developing mind -- The essays on the law of nature -- The essay on toleration -- The Two Treatises and exclusion -- Sir Robert Filmer -- Locke and Hobbes The premises of the argument -- The state of nature -- The creation of the legitimate policy -- Prerogative -- Public good and reason of state -- The conditions for legitimate resistance -- The law of nature -- The coherence of a mind -- The calling : tradition and change.

Table of contents

Publisher description

69014394

0521074088

9780521074087

0521271398

9780521271394

36207

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321 Locke