Launching Liberalism: On Lockean Political Philosophy,New

In This Volume, Prominent Political Theorist Michael Zuckert Presents An Important And Pathbreaking Set Of Meditations On The Thought Of John Locke. In More Than A Dozen Provocative Essays, Many Appearing In Print For The First Time, Zuckert Explores The Complexity Of Lockes Engagement With His Philosophical And Theological Predecessors, His Profound Influence On Later Liberal Thinkers, And His Amazing Success In Transforming The Political Understanding Of The Angloamerican World. At The Same Time, He Also Demonstrates Lockes Continuing Relevance In Current Debates Involving Such Prominent Thinkers As Rawls And Macintyre.Zuckerts Careful Reconsideration Of Lockes Role As Launcher Of Liberalism Involves A Sustained Engagement With The Hermeneutical Issues Surrounding Locke, An Innovator Who Faced Special Rhetorical Needs In Addressing His Contemporaries And The Future. It Also Involves Highlighting The Novelty Of Lockes Position By Examining His Stance Toward The Philosophical And Religious Traditions In Place When He Wrote.Zuckert Argues That Neither Of The Dominant Ways Of Understanding Lockes Relations To His Predecessors And Contemporaries Is Adequate; He Is Not Well Seen As A Follower Of Any Orthodoxy Nor Of Any Antiorthodoxy Of His Day, Either Philosophical Or Theological. He Found A Path To Innovation That Was Philosophically Radical But Which Was Also Able To Connect With Prevailing And Accepted Traditions. That Allowed Him To Exercise A Practical Influence In History Rarely, If Ever, Matched By Any Other Philosopher.Zuckert Illustrates That Influence By Showing How William Blackstone Used Lockean Philosophy To Reshape The Common Law And How The Americans Of The Eighteenth Century Used Lockean Philosophy To Reshape Whig Political Thought. Zuckert Argues That Lockes Philosophy Has Continuing Philosophic And Political Force, A Proposition He Demonstrates By Arguing That Locke Presents A Form Of Political Philosophy Superior To That Of The Liberal Theorists Of Our Day And That He Has Solid Rejoinders To Contemporary Critics Of Liberalism.