Locke, John (1632–1704)

(Still, in 1997, the most complete edition of Locke’s works, together with some of the more philosophically interesting correspondence.)

(A critical edition, planned to include all the published works and significant manuscript material, the bulk of which is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Volumes are available or in active preparation in 1997 as indicated under individual titles below.)

(Useful introduction and notes. The ‘tracts’, the first in English, the second in Latin, debate ‘Whether the Civil Magistrate may lawfully impose and determine the use of indifferent things in reference to Religious Worship?’ Contrary to his later stance, Locke argues in these early manuscripts for the right of the magistrate to regulate religious observance for the sake of public peace.)

(A critique of the notion of infallibility.)

(An early manuscript in Latin in scholastic form which, despite later change in Locke’s conception of moral knowledge, throws light on his mature moral theory as well as the development of his thought. Von Leyden’s edition includes related manuscript material.)

(This manuscript signals Locke’s change of mind to a more liberal view of religious toleration.)

(A manuscript in Locke’s handwriting, but possibly by Sydenham, expounding a strongly empirical method in medicine.)

(Volume I contains Drafts A and B (1671); the forthcoming volumes II and III contain Draft C (1685) and associated manuscript material. Together they cast considerable light on the development and significance of Locke’s general philosophy, including projected, but unfinished chapters of the Essay.)

(A jointly written, hitherto unpublished response to Edward Stillingfleet’s The Mischief of Separation (1680) and The Unreasonableness of Separation (1681) in which Locke and Tyrrell defend toleration of religious nonconformity.)

(Review, by an admiring layman, of Newton’s Principia.)

(Locke’s effective abstract of An Essay concerning Human Understanding.)

(Locke’s classic argument for religious toleration. Popple’s vigorous translation is the one through which the work has chiefly been known to English-speakers.)

(Originally published in December 1689 but carrying the date 1690. Locke’s chief and greatest work, arguing comprehensively that what we can think and know is limited by the way we experience the world, attacking dogmatic pretensions to grasp the essences of things, and affirming that ‘reason must be our last judge and guide in everything’, including morals and religion.)

(In the First Treatise ‘the False Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer and His Followers are Detected and Overthrown’ – that is, the patriarchal theory of monarchy. The Second Treatise, ‘an Essay concerning the True Original, Extent, and End of Civil-Government’, is a major classic of political theory, arguing that government is morally, and should be constitutionally, answerable to the governed. Laslett’s influential introduction stimulated continuing debate as to the immediate context and purposes of Two Treatises, and its relation to the rest of Locke’s thought.)

(Locke defends religious toleration, and his argument of Epistola de Tolerantia, in response to Jonas Proast’s The Argument of the Letter concerning Toleration, Briefly Consider’d and Answer’d.)

(Advice on the coinage which became Government policy.)

(Continues the argument of Epistola de Tolerantia and A Second Letter concerning Toleration, against Jonas Proast).

(Consciously modest in scope, but an important and interesting work in the history of educational theory.)

(Locke’s latitudinarian credo, cutting articles of faith to a minimum and emphasising the moral dimension of Christianity.)

(The first of Locke’s responses to John Edwards’ attack on The Reasonableness in Some Thoughts concerning the Several Causes and Occasions of Atheism, Especially in the Present Age, 1695.)

(A reply to John Edwards’ response to A Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity.)

(Stimulated by the theological objections of Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, Locke explains in particular, in this Letter and two further Replies (1697/1699), his theories of substance, real and nominal essence, and personal identity, and his agnostic attitude towards the issue between dualism and materialism. M.A. Stewart’s edition will contain Stillingfleet’s contributions to the debate.)

(Continues the argument of A Letter to the…Bishop of Worcester.)

(An introductory survey of natural philosophy as Locke saw it, written for the son of his hosts, the Mashams.)

(Continues the argument of A Letter to the…Bishop of Worcester, and Mr Locke’s Reply….)

(Locke’s chief contribution to biblical hermeneutics, now published with associated manuscript material.)

(Defines miracles as divinely purposive and contrary to common experience, but not as contrary to the unknown laws of nature).

(Locke’s last, unfinished shot, following those of 1690 and 1692, in defence of the position taken in Epistola de Tolerantia against Jonas Proast.)

(Around 3,650 letters from and to Locke in the period 1652–1704 supply important evidence of his life and times. A number of exchanges, for example, those with Molyneux and Limborch, are philosophically important.)

(Contains all Locke’s writings on economics (1668–95), with a long introduction explaining their significance.)

(For long one of the two standard commentaries on the Essay, differing from Gibson (1917) in several important respects, some, but not all, improvements.)

(An extended consideration of the version of corpuscularianism favoured by Locke, and of its bearing on his epistemology and metaphysics.)

(Makes strong, controversial claims about Locke’s active engagement in revolutionary politics during the writing of the Two Treatises.)

(An important analysis of the arguments of Two Treatises.)

(A large selective collection of some of the more significant articles written on Locke’s thought, a volume each on political theory, general philosophy, education and economics.)

(A list of editions and translations, including abridgements and selections, of Locke’s writings, together with other works, antecedent and precedent, constituting the immediate controversial context. Secondary works are cited in relation to publication details.)

(The most comprehensive commentary on the Essay, interpreting and assessing Locke’s arguments in their intellectual context, but also offering detailed argument with respect to their continuing philosophical significance.)

(An important biography, but now largely outdated. Bourne made use of available documents, but lacked direct access to the manuscripts now in the Lovelace Collection in the Bodleian Library.)

(A well-organized and useful collection of specially written articles covering Locke’s main philosophical concerns, with a good selective bibliography.)

(A pioneering, incomplete bibliography.)

(A pioneering analysis of Locke’s ethical theory which is careful, judicious and comprehensive in its analysis of Locke’s arguments about ethics, but Colman’s view of their relation to Locke’s theology is open to question.)

(Based rather narrowly on Locke’s then-recently rediscovered correspondence and journals, this is a readable account of his life, but is inaccurate on many details and unhelpful on his intellectual development.)

(A classic study, placing Locke’s political theory in its historical and intellectual context and revealing some of the coherence of his thought that had escaped earlier commentators.)

(Contains an attack on Locke’s Reasonableness which, together with further attacks in Socinianism unmask’d (1696), The Socinian Creed (1697), and A brief vindication of the fundamental articles of the Christian faith…from Mr. Lock’s reflections upon them (1697), stimulated Locke’s own Vindication (1695b), and Second Vindication (1697c).)

(An intelligent, still useful commentary, despite important mistakes.)

(A useful bibliography covering 1900–80.)

(Making wide use of unpublished manuscripts, this is a complex but rewarding attempt to integrate a wide range of Locke’s concerns, and to show how they informed the writing of Two Treatises.)

(A useful collection of papers on this work.)

(King had access to the manuscripts Locke left to his cousin, an earlier Peter King – Lord Chancellor and first Baron King – most of which are now in the Lovelace collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. This ‘biography’ is an ill-organized selection from these journals, papers and letters, but for many years was a valuable source of information otherwise inaccessible, and records some materials since lost.)

(Translation of Leibniz’s Nouveaux essais, a great, if somewhat unsympathetic point-by-point commentary on Locke’s Essay from a rationalist point of view.)

(An unpretentious annual newsletter, with articles, notes, reviews and, very usefully, ongoing bibliography. Both articles and reviews have been of uneven quality, but it gives an overview of Locke studies.)

(An essential tool for Locke scholars.)

(A clear philosophical introduction to the Essay for students, making sensible use of recent scholarship in interpreting Locke’s arguments.)

(A selective philosophical commentary which, although lacking the historical dimension which would often clarify the arguments discussed, has been influential in rekindling interest in Locke’s general philosophy.)

(A contextual account of the development of Locke’s political, religious, social and moral ideas, making wide use of unpublished writings. Perhaps the best study to date of Locke’s religious views and their place in his thought.)

(A useful summary intellectual biography, with an account of other available biographical sources.)

(A judicious introduction to Locke’s political philosophy.)

(The work which, with its sequel, A Third Letter concerning Toleration, stimulated, respectively, Locke’s Second Letter concerning Toleration (1690), and Third Letter for Toleration (1692).)

(A lively collection of papers by leading Locke scholars on subjects including Locke’s life in Oxford, substance, perception, freedom of will, meaning, atomism, aboriginal rights, sin and Locke’s influence abroad.)

(Stillingfleet’s argument against toleration of nonconformity in this and his subsequent The Unreasonableness of Separation (1681) stimulated Locke and Tyrrell to compose a point-by-point rebuttal (1681–3).)

(Stillingfleet accused Locke of sympathy with Socinianism, in this work and in two sequential Answers, stimulating Locke’s Letter to the…Bishop of Worcester (1697), and two Replies, (1697/1699).)

(An illuminating study of ideas about ownership, in particular about the relation between making and owning, and their role in Locke’s thought.)

(A selection of papers on Locke and his context by a leading commentator on Locke’s political philosophy.)

(A vigorous argument as to the philosophical and cultural significance of Locke’s principle that reason should be our guide in everything, and in religion in particular.)

(A useful short introduction to Locke’s general philosophy.)

(A useful bibliography.)

(This short but informative book, locating Locke’s thought in its English context, was a landmark for historical study of his general philosophy.)

(An important contribution to the interpretation of Locke’s philosophy of science and moral theory.)