Wealth

Part 11 - John Locke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7-Abmn9lZY 

The 17th century in England and Wales, was a time of intense religious and political conflict. Was the Church of England, Protestantism or Catholicism the true religion? Did the kings of Ireland, Scotland and England have the right to enforce religious uniformity? And, was parliament or the English king the ultimate ruler? Some people argued that the political authority of kings must be limited while others insisted that they should have unlimited power.

John Locke (1632 to 1704), the founder of classical liberal political ideas, was born into this time of strife. He lived through the Civil Wars of 1641–1649 when King Charles I was executed and was replaced by a republic (the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland) personally ruled by Oliver Cromwell from 1653 to 1658.

The Commonwealth government ended the monopoly of the Church of England in favour Protestant religions. However, the protestant (predominantly Puritan) Commonwealth government was not popular and the complex conflicts continued. Finally, after the Convention Parliament agreed, Charles II returned from exile on 23 May 1660 and was acclaimed by the London populace as king. 

 Between 1665 and 1666, the last major outbreak of the recurring bubonic plague (Black Death) swept through England killing 100,000 people, including 20% of London's population. The Great Fire swept through central London in September 1666 gutting the medieval city and destroying the homes of about 70,000 of the City's 80,000 people, and many other buildings including St Paul's Cathedral.

Meanwhile, Locke studied at Christ Church, Oxford and between the late 1660's and the early 1680's he was aide and physician to the Earl of Shaftesbury.

Political and religious conflict resumed, from the mid-1670's to the mid-1680's, with political challenges to the authoritarian rule of King Charles II; when the Earl of Shaftesbury became the leader of the political forces, attempting to limit the king's authority.

John Locke drafted two 'Treatises of Government' in support of Shaftesbury's attempts, around 1680, but after the discovery of a plot to assassinate Charles II and Charles brother James in 1683, Locke fled to Holland. There he wrote, 'A Letter Concerning Toleration in support of resistance to the rule of James II' (who had succeeded his brother, Charles II, in 1685). 

Locke returned to England following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when both works were published.

The civil wars established the precedent that an English monarch could not govern without Parliament's consent, although the idea of Parliamentary sovereignty was not legally established until the Glorious Revolution in 1688.

Locke developed the concept now known as empiricism, maintaining that knowledge is obtained only by experience. He demonstrated the scientific method by testing his observations repeatedly and claiming that nothing should be exempt from disapproval.

He argued that liberty, and not authoritarian control, was the basis for a peaceful and prosperous society and rejected the doctrine of unlimited, unchecked, political authority. He urged toleration of religious and all other peaceful activities, claiming that each individual possessed natural rights that everyone, and especially political rulers, were obligated to respect. He argued that liberty included the right to develop one's economic abilities and to practice a freely chosen career and to acquire and use property without restrictions, provided any actions did not deprive others of their liberties.

He believed that social and economic order developed from the diverse desires, ambitions, knowledge, and capacities of the individuals and predicted that this would be more complex, vibrant, and dynamic than any order that might be imposed from the top down by social engineers and state planners.

The distinctive feature of governments, is the ability to use coercive power. Locke insisted that coercion, especially the use of physical force, was the enemy of liberty and was acceptable only to defend the liberty of individuals and the associations they voluntarily form. Hence, the classical liberal demand for radical limits on state power and action. 

 Locke's work influenced Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers like David Hume and Adam Smith. His contributions to liberal theory and classical republicanism were adopted for the United States Declaration of Independence.