Read John Locke's original writings

I’ve finally finished the two treatises on government and the letter on toleration. I can honestly say this is one of the most informative and perspective-changing books I have ever read.

By the time Locke wrote the letter concerning toleration, he had really refined his concept of government. By 1690, with the apologies for the glorious revolution documented in his other works, he could really focus on what government should be like. Since their publication, it is safe to say that every major world government has been designed with these principles in mind, if not adopted en masse, as was done in the American constitution.

There are problems with Locke, however.

1) Everything is derived from a purely Christian point of view. He was designing government of Christians by Christians, and so everything traces back to the Bible. Since there are non-Christian governments in the world which are causing some serious issues today, this is a real problem.

2) The world of 1680 was very different from the world of the 21st century. This is true in several ways, but the two biggest are a) there is no freedom of movement to untamed space, as there was in 1680, and b) there was no one-directional mass media in 1680 which could be used to sway the senses of the electorate.

So now I need to decide what to do. It seems to me these gaps should be addressed. Perhaps they have been already. I guess I need to look at what’s been written in political philosophy in the past, say, 60 years.

I’ve really been enjoying this book. I’ve finished Locke’s first two treatises on government. I still want to read the letter on toleration, however, as it completes what we think of as “Lockean political philosophy”.

I can already see some weaknesses in how the US constitution implements Locke’s theses, and I can also see some specific ways that Locke’s assumptions, based on the world of 1690, are inconsistent with the 21st century.

Perhaps a revised version of Locke’s theories of government is in order?

In the 1670’s, John Locke risked his life to write a logical argument refuting the entire concept of the divine right of kings, and to formulate the concepts of natural law and egalitarianism which became the basis of every democratic or parliamentary government since 1776. He can honestly be called the father of modern democracy, and credited with transforming the world with nothing more than a pen.

I owe it to him to read his works.