Kiyoshi Shimokawa

Locke scholarship has been flourishing in Japan for several decades, but its output is largely unknown to the West. This collection makes available in English for the first time the fruits of recent Japanese research, opening up the possibility of advancing Locke studies on an international scale. Covering three important areas of Locke's philosophical thought – knowledge and experimental method, law and politics, and religion and toleration – this volume criticizes established interpretations and replaces them with novel alternatives, breaking away from standard narratives and providing fresh ways of looking at Locke's relationship with philosophers such as Boyle, Berkeley and Hume. The specific topics that have been selected are ones that continue to have important contemporary moral and political implications, from constitutionalism and toleration to marriage and the death penalty. Applying Locke's views to 21st-century questions, this collection presents provocative readings of the defining aspects of Locke's philosophical thought, stimulating current debates and heralding a new era of collaborative work for Locke scholars around the world.

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. ;The major task of this dissertation is to offer a scholarly interpretation of Locke's political theory, while its minor task is to criticize his political theory. ;Introduction presents the broad framework of interpretation which I adopt, the framework of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism can be summed up in the words of Lippmann: "Thus in a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs." "Classical liberalism", as I use the expression, is a theoretical tradition. In Britain, Locke, Hume and Smith are the main proponents of classical liberalism. Its chief feature is that it defends the rule of law on the one hand, and the liberty of each individual man on the other. The state, on this view, is a predominantly judicial entity while private men are predominantly economic beings. Classical liberalism is the doctrine which asserts that there is, and ought to be, a harmony between law and liberty; or between public justice and private property. Locke's political theory belongs to this species of liberalism. ;Chapter 1 offers a detailed exposition of Locke's classical liberalism. Chapter 2 examines the interpretations of Locke's political theory offered by recent scholars and philosophers. Chapter 3 offers a detailed analysis of Locke's concept of property, by combining historical scholarship with philosophical criticism. Chapter 4 attempts to criticize Locke's liberal political theory. It tries to show how his liberal political theory disintegrates when its basis--his account of appropriation--gets undermined