God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought

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God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought
Jeremy Waldron | 2002-12-23 00:00:00 | Cambridge University Press | 276 | Philosophy
Jeremy Waldron, one of the leading political philosophers of our time, looks at the principle of equality in the thought of John Locke, and the extent to which this is grounded in Christian principles. Throughout the text, Waldron discusses contemporary approaches to equality and rival interpretations of Locke, making his book unusually accessible and intellectually exciting. It will be of interest to philosophers, political theorists, lawyers and theologians around the world. Jeremy Waldron is the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor at Columbia Law School and Director of Columbia's Center for Law and Philosophy. Waldron has taught and lectured at UC Berkeley, Princeton University, Edinburgh University, Oxford University and Cambridge University. His books include The Dignity of Legislation (Cambridge, 1999), The Right to Private Property (Oxford, 1988) and The Law (Routledge, 1990). Waldron contributes to the London Review of Books and the New York Times Book Review.
Reviews
Waldron's work is an excellent philosophical analysis of Locke's argument regarding equality. Within the description of Locke as an egalitarian, Waldron develops and explicitly states his own opinion.



The third chapter presents one of the more surprising but most important elements on the foundation of equality in the creation of man by God. This chapters theme is extrapolated through the entirety of the book. In this chapter Waldron presents his case that Locke is an egalitarian who donated a basic level of equality to all people. The book reads well and the arguments are powerful, however Waldron does have an agenda in his work. Waldron wants to present Locke as a radical egalitarian, so when discussing Locke on Slavery, Women and the Poor, he somewhat ignores the negative writings of Locke. Waldron states that he is willing to let the seemingly contradictory views sit side by side and does not (likely because he cannot) reconcile egalitarianism with the entirety of Locke.



That being said, I highly recommend this book to anyone curious about Locke's philosophy, Christian egalitarianism and contemporary theories about equality. Certain issues mentioned are not argued to their logical end (with the theory presented in chapter one) but this is because of the constraints Waldron places upon himself to use Lockean theory. i.e. When Locke states that some group is inferior to another, Waldron does not manage to reconcile Locke and the idea, rather he lets Locke's theory speak for itself and let the reader take it to the logical conclusion (where Locke should have taken it had he not been writing in the late 17th century)

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