Summary
Political philosopher whose Second Treatise of Government and “Letter Concerning Toleration” (1689) supply, in A Brief Genealogy of Jewish Republicanism: Parting Ways with Judith Butler, the origin of the Identitarian model of belief: property and belief as forms of individual self-expression, belief distinguished by its non-fungibility (A Brief Genealogy of Jewish Republicanism: Parting Ways with Judith Butler, PDF p.23-24, p.39-45).
Details
- In the Second Treatise, the right to property pre-exists the state and follows from property in one’s own person: labour mixed with what nature provided in common makes it one’s property, “at least where there is enough, and as good left in common for others” (quoted PDF p.40).
- In the “Letter”, civil government’s business is “by the impartial execution of equal laws, to secure unto all the people in general, and to every one of [the] subjects in particular the just possession of these things belonging to this life” (“L,” 172, quoted PDF p.41-42); eternal happiness is left to each person because it cannot be facilitated by another’s industry or forced from anyone by external violence (“L,” 242, quoted PDF p.43).
- Locke’s toleration argument, as Tucker reads it, is doubled: formal (beliefs cannot be stolen, so need no protection) and singular (“there being but one truth, one way to heaven”, “L,” 220, quoted PDF p.46, coerced belief might be the wrong belief) — a structure Tucker attributes to the doubled nature of Christian faith (PDF p.46-48).
Related pages
A Brief Genealogy of Jewish Republicanism: Parting Ways with Judith Butler, Moses Mendelssohn, Identitarian model of belief, Secularism