Customer Reviews

Locke (Oneworld Thinkers)

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As Edward Feser tells us, few philosopher would place John Locke among the top ten greatest philosophers of all time. Yet few people have influenced the course of history as he did. This is an accesible overview of Locke's life and thought. In particular, Feser emphasizes the importance of Christianity on Locke's thought. Locke's minimalist view of religion places him somewhere on the conservative side of Enlightenment thought, but it should not be ignored much less denied (as in the case of Straussians).

I came to the reading of this book with almost no knowledge of Locke's thought, but with an attraction to Feser's intriguing first line: "Of all modern philosophers, John Locke has had the profoundest influence on the world we live in, and most embodies its guiding principles." As one makes one's way through the book, the truth of this statement becomes manifest. Feser is a very capable writer, able to explain the concepts in Locke's thought in a very helpful and understandable way. Feser is clearly an afficionado of the Aristotelian/Scholastic tradition, and knows it well. In this book he does an excellent job of explaining some of the key ideas of that tradition, and how Locke was attempting to move away from it's premises. What I found particularly helpful was the constant and ongoing comparison that Feser makes between the thinking of the Scholastics, and Locke. This allows Feser to not only show how Locke's thought is different from the Scholastics, but it also enables him to point out the places where Locke, in his attempt to reject that earlier tradition, ended up in contradictions and philosophical incoherence. For me, this book was a fine introduction to an important philosopher who continues to influence the thinking of our own day.

I'm sympathetic to the Straussian view of Locke, especially as articulated in Rahe's "Republics Ancient and Modern" (volume II) and in my view, there was not much in Feser's book to directly contravene that thesis (except perhaps as a matter of emphasis, or in speculation about motives, on which Feser does not focus). Feser's book is actually very forward looking and was great in helping round out and clarify my understanding of the *significance* of Locke's thought. In my view, Feser has pegged the whole problematic meaning of Locke's philosophy as the deafult (not to say "knee-jerk") political philosophy of our modern world. He shows that the modern settlement that seems so utterly commonsensical to us on questions such as science, perception, God, and religious tolerance, is actually quite incoherent. This is much needed medicine. As always, Feser has an eye for what really matters in philososphy. As always, he is a pleasure to read and both asks and gives convincing answers to all the right questions. I love his remark at the end about (paraphrasing) how one must be either a reactionary or a radical, but that it is no longer possible "if it ever was" to a "Lockean."