1,419 research outputs found
Whose Fundamental Constitutions? Locke, Slavery, & Manuscript Evidence
No full textThis article uses the methods that Locke advocated in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding to evaluate manuscript evidence from five different schemes and two drafts of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, to thereby determine what role, if any, John Locke had in writing it, and in advocating for slavery and absolutism. It focuses on the influential claims put forward by David Armitage 20 years ago, that Locke was responsible for actively promoting slavery in Carolina’s Fundamental Constitutions. It enables the reader to view, and judge, the relevant evidence. The author concludes, and invites the reader to conclude, that Armitage’s main claims lack foundation in the manuscript evidence. That evidence instead points towards the legal power of those who owned Carolina, the Lords Proprietors, and to the crown, which granted Carolina’s charter, and to the logic of a different theory of government, patriarchalism, for the rationale behind both slavery and absolutism. The central ideas behind slavery and colonization were epitomized, as Locke understood, by Sir Robert Filmer, who wrote the book to which Locke responded in his Two Treatises of Government. Filmer’s ally, Sir Henry Spelman, like Filmer a deeply committed royalist who believed in the king’s unlimited prerogatives, composed the original 1629 Carolina charter that shaped the Fundamental Constitutions. Misattributing the authorship of particular clauses to Locke is a symptom of a larger failure to distinguish the impact of momentous debates over authority and race in the seventeenth century. Locke’s theories did, in practice as well as principle, reject the theory of domination put forward by Filmer, and argued instead for human rights and democracy that were inclusive and capacious. The manuscript evidence has the potential to reshape how modern democratic theory is understood in the present.https://doi.org/10.5206/ls.2024.1753
Whose Fundamental Constitutions? Locke, Slavery, and Manuscript Evidence
No full textThis article uses the methods that Locke advocated in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding to evaluate manuscript evidence from five different schemes and two drafts of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, to thereby determine what role, if any, John Locke had in writing it, and in advocating for slavery and absolutism. It focuses on the influential claims put forward by David Armitage 20 years ago, that Locke was responsible for actively promoting slavery in Carolina’s Fundamental Constitutions. It enables the reader to view, and judge, the relevant evidence. The author concludes, and invites the reader to conclude, that Armitage’s main claims lack foundation in the manuscript evidence. That evidence instead points towards the legal power of those who owned Carolina, the Lords Proprietors, and to the crown, which granted Carolina’s charter, and to the logic of a different theory of government, patriarchalism, for the rationale behind both slavery and absolutism. The central ideas behind slavery and colonization were epitomized, as Locke understood, by Sir Robert Filmer, who wrote the book to which Locke responded in his Two Treatises of Government. Filmer’s ally, Sir Henry Spelman, like Filmer a deeply committed royalist who believed in the king’s unlimited prerogatives, composed the original 1629 Carolina charter that shaped the Fundamental Constitutions. Misattributing the authorship of particular clauses to Locke is a symptom of a larger failure to distinguish the impact of momentous debates over authority and race in the seventeenth century. Locke’s theories did, in practice as well as principle, reject the theory of domination put forward by Filmer, and argued instead for human rights and democracy that were inclusive and capacious. The manuscript evidence has the potential to reshape how modern democratic theory is understood in the present
Shaftesbury, Locke, and Their Revolutionary Letter?
No full textA corrigendum for this article was published in vol. 18 of Locke Studies available here. Scholars are kindly asked to reference the corrigendum only and not this version of the article.
Late in 1675, the anonymous Letter from a Person of Quality, to His Friend in the Country was condemned in the House of Lords as a ‘dangerous Book’, indeed a ‘lying, scandalous, and seditious Book’. The Peers ordered it to be burned by the public hangman, and opened an investigation designed to discover its author, printer, and publisher. About this search and its success in tracking the author(s) down, very little is known. But as J. R. Milton and Philip Milton, who included the pamphlet in their Clarendon edition of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Toleration and his Other Writings on Law and Politics, 1667–1683, have pointed out, ‘no one has ever doubted that it was written by someone in Shaftesbury’s circle and for Shaftesbury’s purposes. John Locke, Shaftesbury’s secretary at the time, has long been a suspected collaborator in its production
Molyneux’s question and the phenomenology of shape
No full textWilliam Molyneux raised the following question: if a congenital blind person is
made to see, and is visually presented with a cube and a globe, would he be able to
call the shapes before him a cube and a globe before touching them? Locke,
Berkeley, Leibniz, and Reid presented their phenomenological view of shape
perception, i.e. their view as to what it is like to perceive shape by sight and touch, in
responding to Molyneux’s Question. The four philosophers shared the view that
visual perception delivers no solid shape. This view would provide a premise for an
argument for immaterial objects. The purpose of my thesis is to reject that argument.
Kant’s view and John Campbell’s externalist account offer a way to reject the
premise of the argument in question. However, my strategy is not to adopt their view.
I pursue Reichenbach’s view that the there is no congruence or incongruence
involved in the visual phenomenology. I develop his view, and propose the view that
visual perception delivers no flat or solid shape. Although my view endorses the
premise in question, I can offer a way to reject the argument. This is because my
view is compatible with a form of externalism about perception (which differs from
Campbell’s). My view can also do full justice to the phenomenological views
presented by the four philosophers
Women and Lockean Theory : John Locke, Rachel Speght, and Egalitarian Personhood
No full textLiberal political thought affirms the moral equality of all persons. The Lockean tradition within liberalism captures this equality by endowing people with equal natural rights. However, a powerful line of criticism holds that the theory fails to live up to its egalitarian billing by treating men and women differently. This article offers a rational reconstruction of the Lockean position on gender equality, and the rights of women in particular. We propose a novel interpretative method which puts Locke into conversation with a contemporary female author, Rachel Speght. In Speght, we find an interesting argument supporting an egalitarian Lockean view, grounded in familiar Lockean assumptions, using familiar Lockean arguments. Voices like Speght have long been unjustly neglected in the liberal tradition. By constructing this imagined conversation, we offer a stronger foundation for Lockean liberalism, and begin to incorporate excluded voices in the formulation of that tradition
Locke, providence, and the limits of natural philosophy
No full textJohn Locke's comments on experimental natural philosophy can plausibly be seen as a part of the physico-theological project of certain Christian virtuosi of the Royal Society to show that the workings of nature reveal the existence of a providential God. As I make clear, Locke thinks that God providentially designs us with limited epistemic capacities in order to check our pride and to motivate us to seek perfection in God. Locke maintains that a true science of nature is possible, but he is pessimistic about the prospects of realizing such a science, given our epistemic limitations. I argue that this seeming tension can be resolved by appreciating that the horizon for obtaining this science is eschatological. In other words, Locke thinks that we will have a true science of nature in a state of perfection, as God transforms the probable knowledge we have of bodies into certain and comprehensive knowledge.Peer reviewedFinal article published.John Lockenatural philosophyprovidenceGodphysico-theolog
LOCKE, ALAIN
No full textTitle: Papers, 1841-1954 (bulk 1898-1954) Description: 116 linear
Notes: Afro-American teacher, philosopher, author, and critic. Correspondence; writings, including speeches, lectures, books, articles, reviews, and notes, relating to Locke\u27s involvement in Afro-American and African literature and art and his role in the Harlem Renaissance; family papers, including correspondence, certificates, and legal and financial papers, of his grandfather, Ishmael Locke, and parents, Pliny and Mary Hawkins Locke; financial documents; organizational materials; and photographs. Includes material relating to Locke\u27s involvement with Howard University and its community, with the Associates in Negro Folk Education and American Association for Adult Education, and with various organizations advocating cultural pluralism, including the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion and the Progressive Education Association. Persons represented by correspondence and/or mss. include Richmond Barthâe, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Charles S. Johnson, and Renâe Maran. Bequest of Alain Locke. Locke\u27s collection of sheet music, his personal library, and his art collection are also held by Howard University.
Subjects: African literature. Afro-American arts. Afro-American authors. lcsh Afro-American intellectuals. lcsh Afro-American philosophy. Afro-American teachers. lcsh Afro-Americans -- Education. Afro-Americans -- Intellectual life. American Association for Adult Education. American literature -- Afro-American authors. Art, African. Associates in Negro Folk Education. Barthâe, Richmond, 1901-1989. Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Relation to the Democratic Way of Life. Critics. lcsh Cullen, Countee, 1903-1946. Harlem Renaissance. Howard University. Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967. Hurston, Zora Neale. Johnson, Charles Spurgeon, 1893-1956. Locke, Ishmael. Locke, Mary Hawkins. Locke, Pliny. Maran, Renâe, 1887-1960. Multiculturalism -- United States. Progressive Education Association (U.S.)
Location: Howard University, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (Washington, DC) NUCMC #: DCLV96-A104
Accounting for success and failure: A discursive psychological approach to sport talk
No full textIn recent years, constructionist methodologies such as discursive psychology have begun to be used in sport research (Faulkner & Finlay, 2002; Jimmerson, 2001; Locke, 2003; McGannon & Mauws, 2000). This paper provides a practical guide to applying a discursive psychological approach to sport data. After an initial discussion of qualitative and quantitative research paradigms, it provides a detailed explanation of the assumptions and principles of discursive psychology (Edwards & Potter, 1992), outlining the stages of a discursive study from choice of data through transcription and analysis. Finally, the paper demonstrates a discursive psychological analysis on sport data where athletes are discussing success and failure in competition. The analysis examines how the athletes in question manage their accountability for performance and demonstrates that for both there is an apparent dilution of personal agency, to either maintain their modesty in the case of success or to manage blame when talking about failure. It is concluded that discursive psychology has much to offer sport research as it provides a methodology for in-depth studies of interactions in spor
Locke and the Jesuits on law and politics
No full textDr. Elliot Rossiter (Douglas College) contributed the chapter "Locke and the Jesuits on law and politics" (2019).Final book published
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