Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

An Investigation to John Dunn’s Locke Interpretation and Its Influence to Contemporary Society

Liangxuan XuPhilosophy Department, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, United States*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper intends to discuss John Dunn and Macpherson’s investigations to John Locke and provide an evaluation of whether or not John Dunn and Macpherson’s investigations misjudged Locke’s original texts. The paper will first focus on John Dunn’s argument of Locke’s work being outdated due to Locke’s historical background and the reason behind Locke’s writings, especially behind the Second Treatise of Government. Then the paper will focus on Macpherson, who argued against John Dunn but as well denied the importance of Locke’s work in today’s society. By investigating on these two scholars, this paper intends to argue against both two authors and argue that Locke’s works could still provide precious insights to today’s society and is not as what these two authors argued, “outdated” and “historical”. Due to the limits of the length of this paper, I shall only focus in this paper on the section of Property in Locke’s Second Treatise.

Keywords: political philosophy; John Locke; John Dunn
Published: February 28, 2023
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2/2022311
Volume: CHR Vol.2
pp. 278-283
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References

  1. John Dunn, (2003) Locke: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 71.
  2. John Dunn, (1969) The Political Thought of John Locke: An Historical Account of the Argument of the Two Treatises of Government , Cambridge U.P, 60.
  3. John Locke,(2006) “An Essay Concerning Toleration,” The Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke: An Essay Concerning Toleration: And Other Writings on Law and Politics, 1667–1683 , pp. 267-267.
  4. John Locke and A. John Simmons, (2021) Second Treatise of Government, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, II, 1, 3.
  5. John Dunn, (2016), Interpreting Political Responsibility: Essays 1981-1989, Princeton Univ Press, 2-4.
  6. James Tully,(2006) A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries, Cambridge University Press, chapter 4.
  7. C. B. Macpherson, (1962) The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke, Oxford University Press
  8. Karl Olivecrona, (1974) “Appropriation in the State of Nature: Locke on the Origin of Property,” Journal of the History of Ideas 35, no. 2 (1974): p. 211
  9. Stephen Buckle, (2002) Natural Law and the Theory of Property: Grotius to Hume, Clarendon Press.