Note: as with all summaries of huge movements, this description makes sweeping statements that an expert could challenge. You might want to understand the word "perhaps" in every sentence. The goal is to give you a leg to stand on as you think about the historical setting of Locke’s Treatise.
Locke was a key figure in the movement called the Enlightenment in 18th century Europe and America.
Essentially, thinkers of the Enlightenment became convinced of the
power of reason, and developed methods of logical analysis to make
sense of the world. These thinkers, known as rationalists, included:
The Ancient World
One feature of the Enlightenment was its use of works from Greek
and Roman antiquity. There are four things to say about this at this
point:
In this sense, the Enlightenment thinkers had important precursors.
Two of these are covered in IH 51: Macchiavelli and Galileo.
Machiavelli had written two important books. IH students know of the Prince, which describes how to achieve individual rule; but there was also the Discourses, which uses Roman history as a model for "republican" government. Machiavelli deemphasized the role of religion and emphasized human capacities, and found direct models for contemporary behavior in ancient texts.
Galileo’s arguments for heliocentrism (1611-1632) were based not
on ancient sources but on scientific observation—another key topic
in Enlightenment thought. Like Machiavelli and Locke, he used the
Bible, but in a radically different way from the Church authorities
he opposed. Note the bold statement at the beginning of the Letter to
the Grand Dutchess Christina (1615):
… I discovered in the heavens many things that had not been seen before our own age. The novelty of these things, … stirred up against me no small number of professors…. Showing a greater fondness for their own opinions than for truth they sought to deny and disprove the new things which, … their own senses would have demonstrated to them. To this end they hurled various charges and published numerous writings filled with vain arguments,they made the grave mistake of sprinkling these with passages taken from places in the Bible which they had failed to understand properly, and which were ill-suited to their purposes.
Themes of the Enlightenment
All these thinkers saw human reason as a tool of liberation. They believed in education and reason as tools against bad government and superstition.
In Locke and other authors, reason is a key tool. Locke uses this word frequently, and in novel ways. Thus we see him in chapter 1 reviewing the arguments from his first Treatise, which argued that the Bible provides no justification of absolute monarchy. This may not seem like an achievement today, but things were different in 1690.
If their thought was governed by reason, what was the role of religion? You’ve done some work on this in Locke already. Clearly he talks about God and the Bible, but he tends to use it as a historical document, not as holy scripture. This attitude was widespread in the Enlightenment. A century later, Thomas Jefferson "revised" the Gospels to emphasize what he found most relevant about Jesus. His version emphasized Jesus’ ethical sayings, and removed the mysteries (virgin birth, divine annunciation, miracles, etc.) that many people consider most important. Click here to see the first chapter of Matthew in Jefferson’s summary.
This "rational" religious experimentation can be found in other areas as well. The early Quakers charmed Voltaire by rejecting all of the sacraments, including Baptism, and the great Quaker opponent of American slavery, John Woolman, wrote a statement of belief or "creed" that Jefferson could have accepted:
There is a Principle which is pure, placed in the human Mind, which in different Places and Ages hath had different Names; it is, however, pure, and proceeds from God. It is deep, and inward, confined to no Forms of Religion, nor excluded from any, where the Heart stands in perfect Sincerity. In whomsoever this takes Root and grows, of what(Reason could be taken to extremes: In the French Revolution, the great Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris was defaced and renamed as the Temple of Reason. The Revolution witnessed a "Reign of Terror" including mass executions, attacks on churches and other events that persuaded many that the unhindered pursuit of reason could be deeply destructive.)
Nation soever, they become Brethren.
Other targets of the new rationalists included the aristocracy and hereditary monarchs. What justified the hold of these groups on massive areas of land and rule in different countries? In England (1688), the USA (1776) and France (1789), the language of "rights" and "reason" was critical in the assault on these rulers and on the system of feudal landholdings that supported them. The Enlightenment thinkers wanted to view the state as an agent of protection, not oppression. They considered the state the proper and rational instrument of progress.
On feature of Locke’s work is its orderly structure. We accept his initial statements and build logically on these. An emphasis on order is typical of Enlightenment thought: we find few references in the Treatise to irrationality, madness or circumstances beyond our control. The general sense is one of confidence.
Reason is of course, for Locke and others, based on the observation of nature and the achievements of science. We have a wonderful letter from Thomas Jefferson in 1778—the height of the revolution--urging the Philadelphia scientist David Rittenhouse to keep working his research rather than getting involved in political matters (like the American Revolution!):
I doubt not there are … many persons equal to the task of conducting government: but you should consider that the world has but one Ryttenhouse, and that it never had one before.Toleration was another Enlightenment ideal. Locke and Voltaire both wrote treatises on it.
M athematics was a key tool in Enlightenment thinking about the sciences. It is worthwhile to quote René Descartes’ description of it: "the general science which should explain all that can be known about quantity and measure, considered independently of any application to a particular subject."
Note the last phrase: "considered independently." This means that mathematical proofs, like reason in general, are equally true in any era and any place. The emphasis on universal validity, unaffected by place or time, was one reason for the Enlightenment enthusiasm for international art and architecture that rose above "national" forms. Jefferson’s distaste for the British architecture of Williamsburg is famous: "the genius of architecture seems to have shed its maledictions over this land."
Jefferson’s studies as well as his travels moved him to adopt an "international" style of architecture that was rooted, not in the local styles of any contemporary country, but in Greco-Roman antiquity. The wonderful thing about these buildings, for the Enlightenment thinkers, was that they seemed to be temples of geometrical reason, not shrines of contemporary superstition. Philadelphia is rich in such structures, of which the most famous is the Second National Bank of the United States at 2nd and Walnut Streets.
So, as we think about Locke, we should keep this cultural, historical, and political setting in mind. It was a different world from ours: Locke’s insistence on property as a key element in his call for "rights" sets him apart from many of us. It is ironic that he spoke of the "rights" for what would have been five to ten percent of the English population. But he did so in a typically general Enlightenment way, uttering principles that apply for many people he would not have thought of—once we revise the emphasis on property.
See the Discussion Board for some questions about this Lecture.
