Many consider John Locke to be the father of liberalism since he was a strong defender of individual rights, equality between citizens and the separation of powers. According to him, the state and the laws that regulated it should be the consequence of an agreement between its citizens, not because its sovereign had decided so.
Considered one of the greatest representatives of English empiricism, his philosophy, desire to change the world and fight for the recognition of individual freedoms has made Locke one of the greatest British thinkers.
Let’s discover the interesting figure of this philosopher through a biography of John Locke in which we will learn about his life and his revolutionary way of thinking in an England that was upside down with proclamations of failed monarchies and republics.
John Locke born August 29, 1632 in Wrington, England In his childhood he studied at Christ Church, Oxford and, upon completion of his studies, he remained there teaching Greek and rhetoric. The political context in England at the time was very turbulent, with tyrant kings in power and a power struggle between intellectuals and the establishment that shaped Locke’s thinking.
Given the political situation in your country It is not surprising that already in his adolescence he felt interest in public tasks He was a versatile man who studied at the University of Oxford, an institution where he received his doctorate in 1658. Although his specialty was medicine and he maintained relationships with great scientists of the time, such as Isaac Newton himself, John Locke also worked as a diplomat, theologian and economist.
From conservatism to liberalism
In 1662 He joined the Royal Society, an entity dedicated to promoting knowledge about nature Thanks to this, Locke was gaining a bit of fame in the academic context of his time, becoming one of the most important scientists of the moment, especially when it came to experimentally approaching nature. He made empiricism in the scientific field his hallmark.
In this way Locke was gaining fame as one of the most important scientists of his time, especially in the experimental sciences. It was in this period that Locke began to modify his political views, moving from conservatism to more liberal and innovative policies.
His approach to liberal ideas is thanks to having worked as secretary to the Earl of Shaftesbury, leader of the Whig party. This party was an opponent of monarchical absolutism in the England of Charles II and James II. Although his thinking was initially conservative, Locke would end up firmly believing in the need for reforms and defending the power of parliament.
Exile and last years
His new, revolutionary opinions, although supported by many intellectuals and a people increasingly fed up with royal abuses, were strongly persecuted. That is why He would end up taking refuge in Holland between 1683 and 1689
Locke was one of the most fervent supporters of the Glorious Revolution, with which William of Orange would succeed in reaching the English throne by overthrowing James II. Thus, with this triumphant revolution, England became a parliamentary monarchy and was established as a liberal regime, the first in Europe.
Upon returning to his country, John Locke was recognized as one of the most important intellectual personalities of the new British political system. It is from this period in which begins to dedicate himself fully to his philosophical activity publishing works such as Letter on tolerance (1689), Two treatises on government (1690) and Essay on human intellect (1690).
He would die shortly after publishing his great works, on October 28, 1704 at the age of 72 at Oates Castle, near Essex, where he spent the last years of his life.
His political thought
The figure of John Locke has left a deep mark on Western political and economic thought, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. In his works this philosopher He becomes a firm defender of individual freedoms and religious tolerance It is in his work Two essays on civil government of 1690 in which he establishes the basic principles of liberal constitutionalism, postulating that every man is born endowed with natural rights that the State has the mission of protecting. These rights are life, liberty and property.
Based on the thought of Thomas Hobbes, Locke was based on the idea that the State is born from an original social contract, rejecting the traditional doctrine that power comes from divine will and that the king holds it as sent from God. However, he differs from Hobbes by arguing that such a pact did not lead to absolute monarchy, but was revocable and could only lead to limited government.
The authority of the States had to result from the will of the citizens, who would be freed from having to obey their sovereigns if the latter did not respect fundamental rights or exceeded their powers. It is the people, negotiating with the sovereigns, who have the right to modify the legislative power depending on your criteria. This idea is what lies behind modern periodic elections in liberal states.
If the sovereign behaves in a tyrannical manner, the people have the right to overthrow him or change the system, an idea that was taken by Thomas Jefferson and the North American revolutionaries in 1776, gaining independence from Great Britain. This would also be the argument that the French would champion in 1789, staging the French Revolution and ending the absolutism of Louis XVI.
Locke defended the separation of powers as a way to balance them and, thus, prevent any of them from degenerating into despotism. No matter how legitimate it may be, no power should exceed certain limits an idea which would materialize in written form through a constitution.
Religious freedom
John Locke was characterized as a defender of the principle of tolerance and religious freedom, something truly uncommon in his time. He He even stated that the state should not intervene in matters of faith since they are individual and intimate aspects, not a public matter.
He defended respect for all sects of Protestantism, understood as different faiths, and even defended the right to profess non-Christian religions. Ironically, he was not very keen on respecting either Catholicism or atheism.
John Locke’s empiricism
Regarding his Locke philosophy It was inspired by Francis Bacon and René Descartes John Locke delved into empiricism and rejected the Cartesian theory of innate ideas, a refutation of which he dedicated the first part of his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” (1690). According to Locke, the human mind is a blank slate at the beginning, that is, at the moment we are born our mind lacks ideas and impressions: it is a blank canvas. This went against the thought of Descartes who did affirm that it contained innate ideas, such as the idea of God itself.
For Locke all The ideas had to be the result of our experience and through it all our knowledge would emerge When Locke refers to “experience” he is not only talking about the external one, which can be seeing a tree or playing a melody, but it also comes from within us, such as emotions. Thus, Locke distinguished two realms of experience: the inner world and the outer world. The exterior is captured by sensation, and the interior or that of consciousness is captured by reflection.
When Locke and other empiricists talk about ideas, they do not refer to ideas as synonymous with concepts, but to contents of consciousness, that is, the imprint that a sensation or reflection has left on it. There are simple ideas that are acquired by sensation, such as seeing the color red, or by reflection, such as doubt or desire. These simple ideas are organized into complex ones thanks to the subject’s own mental activity. There are a great variety of complex ideas, but they can be reduced to those of substance, manner, and relationship.
It is not possible to know the substance of things through sensation alone since, according to Locke, everything that reaches our understanding passes through the senses and, whether we like it or not, we cannot grasp absolutely everything that must be the substance itself. Through sensation we only perceive the qualities of things, which can be primary or secondary. The primary qualities are those that refer to extension and movement with their respective properties and are captured by the senses The secondary ones would be those perceived by only one sense, such as color, sound or flavor.
Primary qualities have a real objective value, since they exist as we perceive them. On the other hand, secondary qualities, even if they are caused by external things, are subjective, they depend on how we have perceived them. More than qualities, secondary qualities are reactions of the subject to stimuli received from them. Thus, Locke considers that substance is not knowable, although it is possible to admit its existence as that which supports primary qualities and as the cause of secondary qualities.
