Locke

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=__John Locke (1632-1704)__= = = = = =Major Works= A Letter Concerning Toleration //A Second Letter Concerning Toleration// //A Third Letter for Toleration// Two Treatises of Government //An Essay Concerning Human Understanding// //Some Thoughts Concerning Education// //A Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity// //The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures//

=Biography=

John Locke was born in the small Somerset village of Wrington on August 29, 1632. His mother died while he was an infant and his father, a country lawyer, died a few years thereafter. He attended the Westminster school beginning in 1646 and started at the [|University of Oxford] in 1652, where he studied the Classics, and later studied medicine and experimental science. In 1659 he was elected to a senior studentship (equivalent to a fellowship) at [|Christ Church, Oxford].

After working as secretary to the English ambassador to the [|Elector of Brandenburg] on the European continent and then as a fellow of the Royal Society, Locke returned to Oxford from London in 1675. Later that year he decided to relocate to France where he was variously based in Montpellier and Paris until his return to England in 1679. At this time his former employer the [|Earl of Shaftesbury], who had been imprisoned in the Tower of London, was back in favor with [|King Charles II]. Shaftesbury's star fell once more before many years had passed, this time dramatically in association with an enduring power struggle over the Royal succession. Locke as a known some-time friend of the fallen Earl now again found it advisable to live abroad, basing himself in the United Provinces of the Netherlands, between 1683-1688. During these years in the United Provinces Locke found time to finalize his //[|An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]//.

European geopolitics at this time were greatly distressed by the glory-seeking expansionary policies of King Louis XIV of France. Several, mainly Germanic, opponents of the French King became involved in a League of Augsburg. This group was headed by [|William of Orange], the ruler of the Netherlands. The League was also supported by the Papacy as the Pope was alienated by King Louis' insisting in 1682 that the Catholic Church in France should enjoy "Gallican Liberties" where Papal authority would be subject to the assent of the Catholic Church in France. This French assent being fairly open to manipulation by [|King Louis XIV].

As events played out [|James II], the "[|Stuart dynastic]" King of England and an ally of Louis XIV, pursued several policies that were deeply unwelcome to many powerful English interests. Representatives of these interests approached William of Orange, who was married to a daughter of James II by a previous marriage, and who also personally had a hefty dose of the "Stuart" blood royal coursing through his veins. William of Orange and [|Mary] his wife were in fact cousins in the first degree and were jointly offered the British thrones by domestic opponents of James II.

In the so-called [|Glorious Revolution] (1688-9) William and Mary replaced James II as monarchs. The change of monarchy led to an alteration of the political climate in England. John Locke was very much in favor with the new order, and he even returned to England in February 1689 amongst the party attached to soon to be crowned Mary II. Locke was offered a continental ambassadorship but preferred to take up a more modest domestic post in the Commission of Appeals for health reasons.

While Locke had prepared a number of works during his various periods of exile it was only after his return to a more sympathetic England in 1689 that his works began to be published on a significant scale. In February 1690 his Two Treatises of Government appeared and //An Essay Concerning Human Understanding// was published in March of the same year. //Several Letters on Toleration// (i.e. Religious Toleration) followed shortly thereafter. There were a number of subsequent works, (including his influential //Thoughts on Education//), but Locke's reputation as a philosopher today is chiefly based on his //An Essay C////oncerning Human Understanding//. His //Two Treatises of Government// being perhaps of more interest for their seeming direct impact on practical affairs.

Locke was appointed Commissioner of Trade and Plantations in 1696 and held this position until he himself resigned because of ill health in 1700, and he subsequently died at Oates, the country house of [|Lady and Lord Masham], in Essex on October 28th, 1704. //Source: [|http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/locke.html]//

=Timeline of Locke's Life=

Source: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/locke.html//
 * //1632 Locke is born.//
 * //1642 The English Civil War begins//
 * //1646 Locke is admitted to Westminster School//
 * //1649 January 30. King Charles I is executed, the House of Lords abolished; England is declared a Commonwealth//
 * //1652 Locke goes to Christ Church College, Oxford. From this time until 1667 Oxford was Locke's usual place of residence.//
 * //1656 Locke graduates B.A.//
 * //1658 Locke graduates M.A.//
 * //1660 Locke meets Robert Boyle, the chemist, who was to be his friend and correspondent for thirty years. Locke writes his first treatise on the Civil Magistrate.//
 * //1660 Charles II returns to England and is restored to the throne.//
 * //1661 Locke's father dies.//
 * //1664 Locke is "Censor of Moral Philosophy" at Christ Church. He writes the// Essays on the Law of Nature
 * //1665 November-February 1666 Locke visits Cleves as part of a diplomatic mission accompanying Sir Henry Vane to the Elector of Brandenburg.//
 * //1665 Locke reads [|Descartes] and finds in him the first viable alternative to Scholasticism he had encountered.//
 * //1666 Locke meets Anthony Ashley Cooper (later the first earl of Shaftsbury). Locke is granted a dispensation to keep his studentship without taking holy orders.//
 * //1667 Locke began collaborating with Thomas Sydenham in medical research.//
 * //1667 Locke joins Ashly's household in London as Lord Ashley's personal physician. From this time until 1675 Locke resided usually in London. He writes an Essay concerning Toleration//
 * //1668 Locke supervises an operation to remove a cyst from Lord Ashley's liver. Astonishingly, the operation is successful and the patient lives another 15 years! Locke is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.//
 * //1670 Locke (under the supervision of Shaftsbury) writes the Fundamental Constitution of Carolina//
 * //1671 Locke writes the first draft of the// Essay Concerning Human Understanding //From this year until 1675 Locke appears to have been the secretary to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina//
 * //1671 Locke, along with Lord Shaftsbury and many others, buys shares in the Royal Africa Company - the company chartered by the crown to carry out the slave trade for Great Britain; he sells the shares at a profit in 1675//
 * //1672 October-November. Locke visits Paris//
 * //1675 Locke graduates M.B. On 12 November he goes to France and remains there until 1678//
 * //1678 Titus Oates charges that there was a Popish plot to kill King Charles II and put his Catholic brother James on the throne.//
 * //1679 Shaftsbury becomes Lord President of the King's Council. Locke returns to England. A bill to exclude the Catholic Duke of York from the Throne is passed by the House of Commons but fails in the House of Lords 15 October Parliament prorogued and Shaftsbury dismissed from office.//
 * //1681 Lord Shaftsbury tried for treason but acquitted.//
 * //1682 Locke meets [|Damaris Cudworth], daughter of Ralph Cudworth (a Cambridge Platonist).//
 * //1682 November 28. Shaftsbury flees to Holland where he dies on 21 January 1683//
 * //1683 September. The Rye House Plot to kill Charles II exposed; Locke flees to Holland; Essex, Russell and Algernon Sydney (leaders of the Whig party) arrested.//
 * //1684 Locke expelled from his studentship at Christ Church College, Oxford, by Royal command.//
 * //1685 Charles II dies; the Catholic Duke of York ascends the throne as James II.//
 * //1685 Lord Monmouth's (one of Charles II's illegitimate sons) rebellion. Monmouth invades England from Holland, Argyle raises a rebellion in Scotland. Both are suppressed.//
 * //1688 The// Bibliotheque Universelle //publishes a fifty page abstract of Locke's// Essay Concerning Human Understanding
 * //1688 William of Orange invades England and accomplishes the "Glorious Revolution of 1688." James II flees to France.//
 * //1689 February. Locke returns to England escorting the princess of Orange, who later became Queen Mary. He meets Sir Isaac Newton and they become friends.//
 * //1689 The// Epistolia de Tolerentia //was published, and translated by William Popple as// A Letter Concerning Toleration//.//
 * //1689 December. The// Essay Concerning Human Understanding //is published.//
 * //1690 The// Two Treatises of Civil Government //are published.//
 * //1690 Jonas Proast publishes// The Argument of the //'Letter of Toleration'// Briefly Considered and Answered
 * //1691 Locke makes Oates, the residence of Sir Francis and Lady Masham, his permanent home.//
 * //1693// Some Thoughts Concerning Education //published.//
 * //1694 The second edition of the// Essay Concerning Human Understanding //published.//
 * //1695// The Reasonableness of Christianity //published anonymously.//
 * //1695 Locke answered criticisms of the// Reasonableness //in// A Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity//.//
 * //1696 A Board of Trade established and Locke appointed to it. The Board had a variety of duties including overseeing colonial governments. Though ill of health, Locke remained on the Board until 1700. He was its most influential member.//
 * //1697 A second// Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity//.//
 * //1697-99 Locke engaged in an extensive controversy with Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester.//
 * //1700 Locke remained at Oates until his death in 1704.//