Locke’s ‘Liberal’ Natural Law

Abstract

Since the middle of the twentieth century interpretations of Locke’s political philosophy have aimed at finding out whether there is a connection between his “An essay concerning human understanding” and his two “Treatise(s) of Civil Government.” When his tenets about natural law are analysed, the two different interpretations are usually expanded by a need to choose between intellectualism and voluntarism. Both approaches investigate how man learns and obeys natural law that governs human behaviour and social life. The first part of the paper introduces the connection between natural law and the negation of innate ideas, the second part surveys types of natural law and their specific actual variations. Finally, internal ambiguities of previous interpretive approaches are revealed.