Locke and loade.

[mattd]

John Locke's influence on the english and american revolutions:Arising out 
of the enlightenment,
that period, roughly comparable to the present, with printing standing in 
for the wwweb,Lockes
philosophies rippled out from the tumult of the english civil war that led 
to the beheading
of the king,to the present.Some selections from 
...http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/locke.htm

The constructive doctrines which are elaborated in the second treatise 
became the basis of social and political philosophy for generations. Labor 
is the origin and justification of property; contract or consent is the 
ground of government and fixes its limits. Behind both doctrines lies the 
idea of the independence of the individual person. The state of nature 
knows no government; but in it, as in political society, men are subject to 
the moral law, which is the law of God. Men are born free and equal in 
rights. Whatever a man "mixes his labour with" is his to use. Or, at least, 
this was so in the primitive condition of human life in which there was 
enough for all and "the whole earth was America." Locke sees that, when men 
have multiplied and land has become scarce, rules are needed beyond those 
which the moral law or law of nature supplies. But the origin of government 
is traced not to this economic necessity, but to another cause. The moral 
law is always valid, but it is not always kept. In the state of nature all 
men equally have the right to punish transgressors: civil society 
originates when, for the better administration of the law, men agree to 
delegate this function to certain officers. Thus government is instituted 
by a "social contract"; its powers are limited, and they involve reciprocal 
obligations; moreover, they can be modified or rescinded by the authority 
which conferred them. Locke's theory is thus no more historical than 
Hobbes's. It is a rendering of the facts of constitutional government in 
terms of thought, and it served its purpose as a justification of the 
Revolution settlement in accordance with the ideas of the time.

His reflections on the rate of interest show the growing disfavor with 
which appeals for state interference were beginning to be met. He points 
out the obstacles to trade that are caused when the rate of interest is 
fixed by law, and he argues in favor of freedom for what he calls, in words 
which suggest Adam Smith, "the natural interest of money." Money "turns the 
wheels of trade"; therefore its course should not be stopped. At the same 
time, he holds no general brief against the interference of the state in 
matters of commerce; nor is the language of the mercantilist foreign to 
him. Riches consist in plenty of gold and silver, for these command all the 
conveniences of life. Now, "in a country not furnished with mines, there 
are but two ways of growing rich, either conquest or commerce." For us 
commerce is the only way; and Locke condemns "the amazing politics of some 
late reigns" which had "let in other competitors with us for the sea."
. "The business of laws," he says,
is not to provide for the truth of opinions, but for the safety and 
security of the commonwealth, and of every particular man's goods and 
person. And so it ought to be. For truth certainly would do well enough, if 
she were once left to shift for herself. She seldom has received, and I 
fear never will receive, much assistance from the power of great men, to 
whom she is but rarely known, and more rarely welcome. She is not taught by 
laws, nor has she any need of force, to procure her entrance into the minds 
of men. Errors, indeed, prevail by the assistance of foreign and borrowed 
succors. But if truth makes not her way into the understanding by her own 
light, she will be but the weaker for any borrowed force violence can add 
to her.
A church, according to Locke, is "a free and voluntary society"; its 
purpose is the public worship of God; the value of worship depends on the 
faith that inspires it: "all the life and power of true religion consists 
in the inward and full persuasion of the mind;" and these matters are 
entirely outside the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. Locke therefore 
(to use later language) was a voluntary in religion, as he was an 
individualist on questions of state interference. There is an exception, 
however, to his doctrine of the freedom of the individual in religious 
matters. The toleration extended to all others is denied to papists and to 
atheists; and his inconsistency in this respect has been often and severely 
criticized. But it is clear that Locke made the exception not for religious 
reasons but on grounds of state policy. He looked upon the Roman Catholic 
as dangerous to the public peace because he professed allegiance to a 
foreign prince; and the atheist was excluded because, on Locke's view, the 
existence of the state depends upon a contract, and the obligation of the 
contract, as of all moral law, depends upon the divine will.
He held that "the minds of children [are] as easily turned, this way or 
that, as water itself." He underrated innate differences: "we are born with 
faculties and powers, capable almost of anything;" and, "as it is in the 
body, so it is in the mind, practice makes it what it is." Along with this 
view went a profound conviction of the importance of education, and of the 
breadth of its aim. It has to fit men for life -- for the world, rather 
than for the university. Instruction in knowledge does not exhaust it; it 
is essentially a training of character.