[The Critic] The Meaning of Locke

A new book explores the English philosopher’s American afterlife.

America’s Philosopher: John Locke in American Intellectual Life. By Claire Rydell Arcenas. The University of Chicago Press; 265 pages; $29.99.

You can hardly fault John Locke (1632–1704) for never setting foot on US soil, even as Britain’s American colonies grew into intellectual and religious polestars in the English philosopher’s lifetime. “A child of the Reformation”, per Mark Goldie, “and a progenitor of the Enlightenment”, Locke didn’t need to cross the Atlantic to experience more than his share of political upheavals. In 1642, his Puritan father paused his lawyer duties to serve as cavalry captain to the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War, which ended in 1652, the year his son enrolled at Christ Church (Oxford) to read philosophy and later medicine. Once a graduate, Locke briefly served as personal physician to the Earl of Shaftesbury, who propelled him to state mercantile jobs whilst he juggled with writing on the side. In 1683, he took up exile in Holland under suspicion of partaking in the Rye House Plot to assassinate King Charles II. Back in England upon the Glorious Revolution of 1688, his last two decades were his life’s most prolific, his three main works — his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, his Two Treatises of Government, and his Letter Concerning Toleration — all appearing in quick succession in 1689.

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