John Locke and the political issues

 

John Locke and the political issues

During the central decades of the 17th century. Britain was also convulsed by a parallel but more general dispute about who possessed ultimate political authority. Was it the monarch? Or was it Parliament? Or was authority somehow divided among different political bodies? Taxation was often the heated focus of this dispute. Who had the right to levy taxes, the monarch or Parliament? Most of the parties to these disputes shared the premise that whoever has political authority has absolute, unlimited political authority. Once we know who has the right to rule, we know who has the right to rule without constraint. A common argument was that monarchial authority must be unlimited because a monarch with limits on his or her authority would not be a true sovereign. However, the premise that political authority must be unlimited in its scope came under attack as theorists developed or refined the idea that political authority exists only for certain limited purposes and that, when rulers pursue other purposes---for example, burning heretics, establishing and enforcing economic monopolies, and imposing censorship—their actions transgress those limits. Not surprisingly, the contention that the scope of political authority is limited-even radically limited—was opposed by defenders of the idea that all sovereigns must have unlimited authority. More specifically, defenders of this authoritarian view maintained that, no matter what command any sovereign issues, that command will be lawful and any -disobedience or resistance to that command will be unlawful.

 

In contrast, Locke's political philosophy fundamentally rejects the doctrine of unlimited, unchecked, political authority. In his Second Treatise of Government and his A Letter! Concerning Toleration, Locke synthesizes the arguments for religious toleration and the more general contention that toleration must be extended to all peaceful activities. Especially in A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke argued that liberty and not authoritarian control is the basis for a peaceful and prosperous society. As we shall see, the ultimate ground for Locke's anti-authoritarian advocacy of toleration and liberty is his affirmation of each individual's possession of natural rights that all other persons, especially political sovereigns--are obligated to respect.