John Locke: A Biography (Oxford Paperback Reference) [Paperback]

Maurice William Cranston (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0192830449 | ISBN-13: 978-0192830449 | Publication Date: October 24, 1985

First published in 1957, Maurice Cranston's book is recognized as the definitive biography of John Locke. It provides that rare combination of sound scholarship, a wealth and variety of original source material, and a lively, compelling narrative.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 24, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192830449
• ISBN-13: 978-0192830449
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,419,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AND OLDER, BUT STILL VALUABLE, BIOGRAPHY OF LOCKE, November 12, 2009

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Locke: A Biography (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)

Maurice Cranston was a British philosopher, who in 1957 wrote this excellent biography of empiricist English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704); Cranston received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for this work (which has now perhaps been superseded by the more recent biography by Roger Woolhouse (Locke: A Biography).

Cranston notes that "Locke is an elusive subject for a biographer because he was an extremely secretive man." "Locke's view on education were, like his views on several other questions, curiously compounded of the conventional and the revolutionary." He also notes the evolution of Locke's political philosophy over time: "Locke in 1660 and 1661 was thus a man of the Right, an extreme authoritarian. Within a few years his political views were to be radically changed." Locke's Two Treatises of Government were written in about 1681 in rejection of Filmer's Filmer: 'Patriarcha' and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) book, and to set out Locke's own theory of government. Ironically, Cranston notes that Locke's sense of toleration in society "stopped short of Roman Catholics."

In his "Third Letter" (The Reasonableness of Christianity: With a Discourse of Miracles and Part of a Third Letter Concerning Toleration), Locke said that "the true religion was unknowable. He (like his critic) believed in the religion of the Church of England. But he did not KNOW that religion was true. Religion rested on faith, not knowledge. The true was that which was known, not simply believed. Belief, however, strong, could be false." Cranston observes that "Locke admitted that St. Paul had 'light from heaven' when he wrote, but he could concede no more divine inspiration than this, and he did not think that the writings of St. Paul should be in any way exempt from rational criticism."

Though more than fifty years old, this biography is still of much interest to students of Locke, political philosophy, and philosophy in general.