Reading Strategies for University Students Book

John Locke warms my heart.

As a thinker, Locke is formidable. Nonetheless, he is on a level somewhat below other modern philosophers, like Descartes, Hume, and Kant. This is because of his incorrigible habit of stopping his arguments just short of the point at which they would contradict common sense. This is a bad quality in a philosopher, but an endearing quality in a man (as you can tell from his great popularity in his lifetime). And, perhaps from sheer luck, even the logical errors that Locke made have lent themselves to scientific and political progress. So as a result of his winsome personality and his philosophical felix culpas, Locke has shaped the modern world more than Descartes, Hume, and Kant combined! Just goes to show that raw intelligence isn’t necessarily the summum bonum in philosophy.

This is definitely my favorite work by Locke. The Second Treatise of Government and his Essay on Human Understanding are both fascinating, but somewhat dry. Luckily, unlike those two works, Locke wrote A Letter Concerning Toleration in Latin, so the prose is translated, and therefore more lively. What you get is a brilliant, brief, and brazen book, both eloquent and persuasive.

Locke clearly delineates the functions of church and state, and provides a compelling argument in favor of religious tolerance. It’s probably impossible for somebody alive today to fully understand how radical these ideas were. Not only was he willing to tolerate all Christians (which, by itself, would have been progressive), but wishes to extend tolerance to Jews, Muslims, and even Native Americans—I doubted my own eyes when I read that. (In keeping with his tendency to stop arguments short of the point that they would scandalize, he does not wish to extend toleration to atheists.)

In short, if you want to learn about the origins of one of our most basic features of government, if you want to read an argument in favor of religious toleration that is still tremendously relevant, or if you want to acquaint yourself with a one of the most influential thinkers in history, read this.

[I might also suggest John Milton's Areopagitica, a similarly short work in which Milton lays the basis for the freedom of the press, as a good companion piece.]