John Locke and America: The Defence of English Colonialism

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John Locke and America: The Defence of English Colonialism
Barbara Arneil | 1996-05-23 00:00:00 | Oxford University Press, USA | 240 | Philosophy
This book considers the context of the colonial policies of Britain, Locke's contribution to them, and the importance of these ideas in his theory of property. It also reconsiders the debate about John Locke's influence in America. The book argues that Locke's theory of property must be understood in connection with the philosopher's political concerns, as part of his endeavour to justify the colonialist policies of Lord Shaftesbury's cabinet, with which he was personally associated. The author maintains that traditional scholarship has failed to do justice to Locke by ignoring the implications of contemporary British imperial policy for the interpretation of his political thought.
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Arneil's monograph studies both the philosophy and politics in Locke's writings and their historical impact. Her work offers insight into different world views. Different from most of ours today. But also, in Locke's time, there were two broadly divergent world views, amongst the European colonists in the Americas.



One, shared by Locke and the English, was that in the 1600s, their rightful claim to the American land was valid not by force of arms, but by the subsequent peaceful farming of the land. Granted, this imputed few rights to nomads previously using that land. But the attitude was quite different from that of the Spaniards, which was based on the right of conquest.



Thus, a value of the book is not just in an understanding of Locke, though it certainly gives such. It also provides a perspective on historical developments in the Americas, of which he was an active participant.

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