The Historical and Cultural Context of Locke’s Philosophy
Locke’s Historic and Cultural Context: Political conditions in Europe during the seventeenth century followed the consolidation of absolutism. The capitalist economic crisis, exacerbated by war, led to a progressive decline of absolutism and the ruling aristocracy. The bourgeoisie exploited the situation to gain power. Secularization gained ground, and the clergy lost influence in politics. This period was marked by revolution, particularly with the English Revolution of 1688, which defended the parliament linked to the defense of public liberties, while the monarchies lost ground. England was ruled by the Stuart regime from 1642 to 1648, during which conflicts arose between parliamentarians and civil monarchists, who were ultimately defeated. This conflict led to the proclamation of the Republic (1649-1660), which became a personal dictatorship under Oliver Cromwell. After his death, his son proved incapable, leading to the restoration of the Stuart dynasty. The 1688 Glorious Revolution resulted in a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The 1689 Declaration of Rights served as a preamble to the Declaration of Independence from human rights. The triumph of the revolution assumed political and religious freedoms, benefiting the bourgeois and Anglican classes in capitalist England. The trading power and political thought of England became precursors to the European Renaissance. The political thought of Great Britain in the seventeenth century anticipated the characteristics of the Enlightenment, rethinking the scale of social values and spreading the great principles of philosophical rationalism and naturalism. Locke can be considered the first Enlightenment thinker who relied on human reason and sought to make it the highest norm of human life. The English and French Enlightenments exhibit several differences, with Hume being a prominent figure in the English Enlightenment.
Philosophical Context of Locke: Empiricism, a philosophical current that asserts the value of knowledge depends on our experience, developed between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in continental Europe and stands in opposition to rationalism. Its background can be traced to the medieval universities of Paris and Oxford, where thinkers like Bacon and Ockham were precursors of English empiricism. Cambridge was dominated by Renaissance Platonism. The fundamental thesis of empiricism is that the origin of knowledge is experience, not innate ideas; there are internal and external experiences. Experience limits human knowledge, opposing rationalism, which claims that reason encompasses all knowledge. Knowledge is identified with perception, and the new concept of reason differs from the rationalist view, being limited and dependent on practical experience. This approach examines its own limits and possibilities critically.
English Political Thought: Defenders and critics of absolutism primarily focus on politics. The Renaissance background found in utopian thinking influences this discourse. In the sixteenth century, Hooker distinguished between natural law and positive law, which would later influence Locke. Natural law is intrinsic to being, while positive law is established by the government. During the Civil War, poet Milton embodied republican ideas that inspired Locke in his defense of rebellion when institutions fail to fulfill their responsibilities. Locke criticized the defense of absolutism presented by Robert Filmer and outlined his own political theory.