John Locke

Bio: John Locke is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Toleration & Government. The author has an hindex of 41, co-authored 192 publications receiving 8728 citations.

The second treatise of government

Abstract: Born in 1632, John Locke was an important figure in both British and American politics; indeed, there are few, if any, philosophers who were more influential in the development of American political institutions and beliefs than John Locke. Locke's father was a politically influential lawyer who supported Oliver Cromwell and the British Parliament against King Charles 1. John Locke was sent to Oxford at fifteen, where he became friendly with noted chemist Robert Boyle as well as other scientists, all of whom exerted an important influence on young John. After graduation, Locke served as a tutor in Greek. Then, after serving a period as a diplomat, he returned to Oxford to study medicine. Locke was active throughout his life in political and public affairs. At one point he was forced into exile by the king, but he returned to England after the Glorious Revolution in 1688. He died in 1704 at the age of seventy-two. Locke's influence is evident, among other places, in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. In his First Treatise of Government, Locke attacks the divine right of kings; in the Second Treatise, from which the following selection is taken, he addresses the legitimate role of government together with the limits on governmental power. Locke begins by imagining persons in a state of nature in which each is independently pursuing his or her own interests. In that situation, he argues, people possess natural moral rights to life, property, and liberty, rights that are not to be transgressed by others. Given the realities of such a state of nature, it is in the interests of people to move to~rd cooperation and trade and to establish common institutions to provide protection of life and property. Governmental action is severely limited, however, by people's natural rights-a topic to which he devotes considerable attention. Locke also considers the related and important question of how a previously unowned resource may justly become the property of one person.

Two Treatises of Government.

Abstract: Peter Laslett's edition of Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" is widely recognised as one of the classic pieces of recent scholarship in the history of ideas, and has been read and used by students of politcal theory throughout the world. Dr. Laslett demonstrated that the version usually cited was in no way a representation of that 'text for posterity' Locke left behind, and exhaustive analysis of Lock's private papers and personal library caused Dr. Laslett radically to alter the received notion that the "Two Treatises" were in any sense a rationalization of the events of 1688: Locke's texts were rather a call for a revolution yet to come.

A letter concerning toleration

Abstract: The ensuing Letter concerning Toleration first printed in Latin this very year in Holland, has already been translated both into Dutch and French. So general and speedy an approbation may, therefore, bespeak its favourable reception in England. I think, indeed, there is no nation under heaven in which so much has already been said upon that subject as ours. But yet, certainly, there is no people that stand in more need of having something further both said and done amongst them, in this point, than we do.|

Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration

Abstract: Two of Locke's most mature and influential political writings and three brilliant interpretive essays have been combined here in one volume. Among the most influential writings in the history of Western political thought, John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" and "A Letter Concerning Toleration" remain vital to political debates more than three centuries after they were written. The complete texts are accompanied by interpretive essays by three prominent Locke scholars. Ian Shapiro's introduction places Locke's political writings in historical and biographical context. John Dunn explores both the intellectual context in which Locke wrote the "Two Treatises of Government" and "A Letter Concerning Toleration" and the major interpretive controversies surrounding their meaning. Ruth Grant offers a comprehensive discussion of Locke's views on women and the family, and Shapiro contributes an essay on the democratic elements of Locke's political theory. Taken together, the texts and essays in this volume offer insights into the history of ideas and the enduring influence of Locke's political thought.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Abstract: Evolutionary psychology is one of many biologically informed approaches to the study of human behavior. Along with cognitive psychologists, evolutionary psychologists propose that much, if not all, of our behavior can be explained by appeal to internal psychological mechanisms. What distinguishes evolutionary psychologists from many cognitive psychologists is the proposal that the relevant internal mechanisms are adaptations—products of natural selection—that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive and reproduce. To understand the central claims of evolutionary psychology we require an understanding of some key concepts in evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, philosophy of science and philosophy of mind. Philosophers are interested in evolutionary psychology for a number of reasons. For philosophers of science —mostly philosophers of biology—evolutionary psychology provides a critical target. There is a broad consensus among philosophers of science that evolutionary psychology is a deeply flawed enterprise. For philosophers of mind and cognitive science evolutionary psychology has been a source of empirical hypotheses about cognitive architecture and specific components of that architecture. Philosophers of mind are also critical of evolutionary psychology but their criticisms are not as all-encompassing as those presented by philosophers of biology. Evolutionary psychology is also invoked by philosophers interested in moral psychology both as a source of empirical hypotheses and as a critical target.

A theory of cortical responses

Abstract: This article concerns the nature of evoked brain responses and the principles underlying their generation. We start with the premise that the sensory brain has evolved to represent or infer the causes of changes in its sensory inputs. The problem of inference is well formulated in statistical terms. The statistical fundaments of inference may therefore afford important constraints on neuronal implementation. By formulating the original ideas of Helmholtz on perception, in terms of modern-day statistical theories, one arrives at a model of perceptual inference and learning that can explain a remarkable range of neurobiological facts. It turns out that the problems of inferring the causes of sensory input (perceptual inference) and learning the relationship between input and cause (perceptual learning) can be resolved using exactly the same principle. Specifically, both inference and learning rest on minimizing the brain’s free energy, as defined in statistical physics. Furthermore, inference and learning can proceed in a biologically plausible fashion. Cortical responses can be seen as the brain’s attempt to minimize the free energy induced by a stimulus and thereby encode the most likely cause of that stimulus. Similarly, learning emerges from changes in synaptic efficacy that minimize the free energy, averaged over all stimuli encountered. The underlying scheme rests on empirical Bayes and hierarchical models of how sensory input is caused. The use of hierarchical models enables the brain to construct prior expectations in a dynamic and context-sensitive fashion. This scheme provides a principled way to understand many aspects of cortical organization and responses. The aim of this article is to encompass many apparently unrelated anatomical, physiological and psychophysical attributes of the brain within a single theoretical perspective. In terms of cortical architectures, the theoretical treatment predicts that sensory cortex should be arranged hierarchically, that connections should be reciprocal and that forward and backward connections should show a functional asymmetry (forward connections are driving, whereas backward connections are both driving and modulatory). In terms of synaptic physiology, it predicts associative plasticity and, for dynamic models, spike-timing-dependent plasticity. In terms of electrophysiology, it accounts for classical and extra classical receptive field effects and long-latency or endogenous components of evoked cortical responses. It predicts the attenuation of responses encoding prediction error with perceptual learning and explains many phenomena such as repetition suppression, mismatch negativity (MMN) and the P300 in electroencephalography. In psychophysical terms, it accounts for the behavioural correlates of these physiological phenomena, for example, priming and global precedence. The final focus of this article is on perceptual learning as measured with the MMN and the implications for empirical studies of coupling among cortical areas using evoked sensory responses.

Trust: the connecting link between organizational theory and philosophical ethics

Abstract: Numerous researchers have proposed that trust is essential for understanding interpersonal and group behavior, managerial effectiveness, economic exchange and social or political stability, yet according to a majority of these scholars, this concept has never been precisely defined. This article reviews definitions from various approaches within organizational theory, examines the consistencies and differences, and proposes that trust is based upon an underlying assumption of an implicit moral duty. This moral duty—an anomaly in much of organizational theory—has made a precise definition problematic. Trust also is examined from philosophical ethics, and a synthesis of the organizational and philosophical definitions that emphasizes an explicit sense of moral duty and is based upon accepted ethical principles of analysis is proposed. This new definition has the potential to combine research from the two fields of study in important areas of inquiry.

Modern Social Imaginaries

Abstract: Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 The Modern Moral Order 3 2 What Is a "Social Imaginary"? 23 3 the Specter of idealism 31 4 The Great Disembedding 49 5 The Economy as Objectified Reality 69 6 The Public Sphere 83 7 Public and Private 101 8 The Sovereign People 109 9 An All-Pervasive Order 143 10 The Direct-Access Society 155 11 Agency and Objectification 163 12 Modes of Narration 175 13 The Meaning of Secularity 185 14 Provincializing Europe 195 Notes 197

Capabilities as fundamental entitlements: Sen and social justice

Abstract: Amartya Sen has made a major contribution to the theory of social justice, and of gender justice, by arguing that capabilities are the relevant space of comparison when justice-related issues are considered. This article supports Sen's idea, arguing that capabilities supply guidance superior to that of utility and resources (the view's familiar opponents), but also to that of the social contract tradition, and at least some accounts of human rights. But I argue that capabilities can help us to construct a normative conception of social justice, with critical potential for gender issues, only if we specify a definite set of capabilities as the most important ones to protect. Sen's "perspective of freedom" is too vague. Some freedoms limit others; some freedoms are important, some trivial, some good, and some positively bad. Before the approach can offer a valuable normative gender perspective, we must make commitments about substance.