Feminist Theory

John Locke

b. 1632 in Wrigton, Somerset, England

d. 1704

Son of attorney/law clerk

Puritan family

Studied the classics at Westminster School

Attended Christ Church, Oxford

Dissatisified with Scholasticism

Interested empiricism

Worked with chemist; served in diplomatic corps in Brandenburg; studied Descartes; rethought his earlier intolerance of Catholics

Inheritance

studied medicine; noted physician; successful operation on Lord Ashley Lord of Shaftesbury led to his lifelong patronage

Exile

Unfortunately, Shaftesbury opposed the Stuarts, was tried for treason (acquitted), but fled to Holland

Locke followed him

Wrote A Letter on Toleration

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Drafted Two Treatises on Government (response to Robert Filmore aka Filmer) partially in support of opposing Charles I; postponed publication till 1689 (after the Glorious Revolution)

Major influence on the American founders

Esp. Jefferson, Paine and Publius (The Federalist Papers authors)

Declaration of Independence

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Right or even duty to revolt:

“ That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.”