Locke, John [addendum]

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John Locke has been, for the last three decades, the subject of a rapid expansion of interest, stimulated by Oxford University Press's Clarendon edition of his works. The eight-volume edition of Locke's correspondence has opened new areas of information and exploration. So far in that series, we have definitive editions of Essay (including editions of the drafts and other relevant writings), the work on education, his paraphrases of St. Paul's epistles, and the papers on money, and well as The Reasonableness of Christianity, and the journals (again, opening a vast and important insight into Locke's reading, book buying, travels, opinions), and other works will follow. These editions, and the research that went into their production, have provided new resources for work on almost all aspects of Locke's life and writings, as well as material relating to his intellectual environment.

Antedating the Clarendon series was another medium for interest in Locke: The Locke Newsletter, founded and edited by Roland Hall. Beginning in 1970, published once per year (more or less), the newsletter has published articles on all aspects of Locke's thought. Included in each number is a list of recent (as of 1996) books and articles on Locke in many languages. This is a valuable source for keeping up to date on the publications about Locke. Another source of information on publications about Locke is the Reference Guide by Yolton and Yolton. Two other bibliographic resources are Attig's listings of Locke editions and the much fuller descriptive bibliography of all editions of Locke's publications by Jean S. Yolton. The latter, a work long overdue, describes many different copies of Locke editions, which were located and examined in many different libraries and countries.

Among the topics in Locke's Essay, three have received special attention: the representative theory of perception, personal identity, and matter theory. The first of these in recent discussions has involved a debate over the nature of ideas: Are they special entities (e.g., images) standing between perceivers and objects, or are they simply the means for our access to the physical world? On the second topic it is becoming increasingly recognized that memory is not the crux of Locke's concept of person; it is consciousness, a wider and richer process (one with clear moral overtones) that focuses our awareness of self. A person for Locke is a moral being composed of the thoughts, feelings, and actions performed throughout a life. Consciousness is not a property of some immaterial substance, at least not so far as we can discover. The third topic has been given detailed attention via Locke's use of the corpuscular theory (see Alexander 1985). Some recognition has been given to Locke's movement toward the Newtonian concept of matter as force and power. Locke anticipated this development in his talk of the qualities of body being primarily powers. The substantiality of matter begins to fade under Locke's analysis of primary and secondary qualities. The chapter on power in Essay, the power of persons and the power of matter, is the longest and most complex chapter in that work (see J. W. Yolton 1993).

Locke's social and political thought has received even more attention throughout the decades, especially during the 1980s and 1990s. Laslett's early dating of Two Treatises and his locating that work in its historical context have been developed by writers such as Dunn, Harris, and Marshall. The central role of property and the relation of that concept to the person is generally recognized (see Tully 1980). His Two Treatises elaborates a concept of property that starts with each person's having property in his person. Acquisition of other possessions is a function of that original self-property. The tension between the interests and rights of the individual and those of society (or the community of mankind) is much discussed (see especially Gobetti 1992). The focus on consciousness as defining the person in his Essay indicated the central place of the individual in Locke's civil society. At the same time majority decisions were allowed to restrain individual actions. The power of the people is sanctioned by a social contract that obliges the ruler or legislative body to act for the good of the citizens, in conformity with the laws of nature. The interconnections between Locke's moral views and his social and political thought have been discussed by Marshall (1984). The issue of religious toleration has focused some of the recent treatments of Locke's political and religious writings, but all of the toleration writings by Locke await their inclusion in the Clarendon editions.

Locke's religious interests in the Bible and in what is required of a Christian have been clarified by recent studies (e.g., Wainwright's edition of the Paraphrases, 1987), but this area will be further illuminated when the Clarendon edition of Reasonableness appears. Locke's relation to the Latitudinarians and the role of original sin in his thinking have been explored by Spellman (1988). Coleman's (1983) systematic study of Locke's moral theory set the stage for some of the recent attention to this aspect of Locke's thought.

Another newly developing area of Locke studies concerns the reception of his doctrines in Europe, especially in France. The difficulties the French had with the term "consciousness" when translating this English term have been interestingly analyzed by Davies (1990). Reactions to Locke's books in French-language journals and the impact of his doctrines (especially thinking matter) on Enlightenment thinkers have been presented by several writers (Hutchison 1991; Schøsler 1985, 1994; J. W. Yolton 1991). The full story of the reception of Locke's doctrines in Europe (especially in Germany, Portugal, and Holland) in the eighteenth century has yet to be written. Fruitful research programs are waiting for scholars. A number of collections of articles can be consulted to fill out this brief sketch of newer developments in Locke studies (Chappell 1994, Harpham 1992, Thompson 1991).

Consciousness; Perception; Personal Identity; Power; Primary and Secondary Qualities; Property; Social Contract; Toleration.

De Beer, E. S., ed. The Correspondence of John Locke. 8 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976–189.

Kelly, P., ed. Several Papers Relating to Money, Interest, and Trade. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Laslett, P., ed. Two Treatises of Government. 3rd ed. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Nidditch, P. H., ed. An Essay concerning Human Understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Nidditch, P. H., and G. A. J. Rogers, eds. Drafts for the Essay concerning Human Understanding and Other Philosophical Writings. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Includes drafts A and B: other volumes planned.

Wainwright, A. P., ed. Paraphrases and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Yolton. J. W., and J. S. Yolton, eds. Some Thoughts concerning Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Alexander, P. Ideas, Qualities, and Corpuscles: Locke and Boyle on the External World. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Ashcraft, R. Revolutionary Politics and Locke's "Two Treatises of Government." Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.

Attig, J. C., ed. The Works of John Locke: A Comprehensive Bibliography from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985.

Ayers, M. Locke. 2 vols. London, 1991.

Chappell, V., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Colman, J. John Locke's Moral Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983.

Davies, C. "Conscience" as Consciousness: The Self of Self-Awareness in French Philosophical Writing from Descartes to Diderot. Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 272. Oxford, 1990.

Dunn, J. The Political Thought of John Locke: An Historical Account of the Argument of the "Two Treatises of Government." Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Franklin, J. H. John Locke and the Theory of Sovereignty: Mixed Monarchy and the Right of Resistance in the Political Thought of the English Revolution. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Gobetti, D. Public and Private: Individuals, Households, and Body Politic in Locke and Hutcheson. London, 1992.

Goyard-Fabre, S. John Locke et la raison raisonnable. Paris: Bordas, 1986.

Harpham, E. J., ed. John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government": New Interpretations. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1992.

Harris, I. The Mind of John Locke: A Study of Political Theory in Its Intellectual Setting. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Hutchison, R. Locke in France, 1688–1734. Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 290. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation of the Taylor Institution, 1991.

Mackie, J. L. Problems from Locke. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.

Marshall, J. John Locke: Resistance, Religion, and Responsibility. Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Passmore, J. "Locke and the Ethics of Belief." Proceedings of the British Academy, 64 (1978): 185–208.

Rogers, G. A. J. "Locke, Anthropology, and Models of the Mind." History of the Human Sciences 6 (1993): 73–87.

Rogers, G. A. J., ed. Locke's Philosophy: Content and Context. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.

Schochet, G. J. "Toleration, Revolution, and Judgment in the Development of Locke's Political Thought." Political Science 40 (1988): 84–96.

Schøsler, J. La bibliothèque raisonnée (1728–1753): Les Réactions d'un périodique français à la philosophie de Locke au XVIIIe siècle. Odense: L'universite D'ordense, 1985.

Schøsler, J. "Le Christianisme raisonnable et le débat sur le 'Socianisme' de John Locke dans la presse française de la première moitié du XVIIIe siècle." Lias 21 (2) (1994): 295–319.

Schouls, P. A. Reasoned Freedom: John Locke and Enlightenment. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Spellman, W. M. John Locke and the Problem of Depravity. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.

Thiel, U. Locke's Theorie der personalen Identität. Bonn, 1983.

Thompson, M. P., ed. John Locke und Immanuel Kant. Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1991.

Tomida, Y. "Idea and Thing: The Deep Structure of Locke's Theory of Knowledge." Analecta Husserliana 66 (1995): 3–143.

Tuck, R. Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Tully, J. A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Vaughn, K. I. John Locke, Economist and Social Scientist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Vienne, J.-M. Expérience et raison: Les fondements de la morale selon Locke. Paris: Vrin, 1991.

Walmsley, P. "Locke's Cassowary and the Ethos of the Essay." Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 22 (1992): 253–267.

Walmsley, P. "Dispute and Conversation: Probability and the Rhetoric of Natural Philosophy in Locke's "Essay." Journal of the History of Ideas 54 (1993): 381–394.

Winkler, K. P. "Locke on Personal Identity." Journal of the History of Philosophy 29 (1991): 201–226.

Wood, N. The Politics of Locke's Philosophy: A Social Study of "An Essay concerning Human Understanding." Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

Yolton, J. S. John Locke: A Descriptive Bibliography. Bristol, U.K.: Toemmes Press, 1996.

Yolton, J. S., and J. W. Yolton. John Locke: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1985.

Yolton, J. W. Locke and the Compass of Human Understanding: A Selective Commentary on the Essay. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

Yolton, J. W. Locke and French Materialism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

Yolton, J. W. A Locke Dictionary. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1993.

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