| This dissertation examines the theoretical foundations of John Locke's political thought. An analysis of Locke's interpretation of Nature as presented in An Essay concerning Human Understanding shows, I argue, that Locke grounds his political thought in custom and convention rather than in a conception of Nature. Locke's critique of natural species and conventionalism with regard to moral, ethical, and political ideas form the basis of his view that Nature cannot serve as a guide for the proper ordering of social and political life. Nevertheless, his epistemology accounts for why humans develop ideas about species, ethics, and morality, and Locke urges practical reliance on such notions at the levels of society and politics. Harnessing the potentialities inherent in human language is the key to facilitating such reliance.;This study offers a different way of understanding the relationship between Locke's philosophy of Nature and his liberal political theory. While some scholars tend simply to emphasize the theoretical gap between Locke's politics and his philosophy, others argue in favor of a relatively seamless continuity. By contrast, my interpretation of Locke acknowledges the existence of some theoretical discontinuity, but it indicates that this disjuncture has a philosophical basis. Given Nature's lack of structural provision for human life, political communities must rely for guidance on ideas and arguments that are of historical origin. Analyses of Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education and argument for human equality suggest that Locke purposefully grounded his own social and political thought in considerations of time and place. |
