John Locke:

from liberal interpretation to republican values

Abstract

The aim of this article is to relate the Second Treatise to the English republican tradition. In order to do this, it is divided into two parts: in the first, the main arguments of Locke’s liberal reading will be reconstructed, based on two of his greatest defenders, Strauss and Macpherson, as they have had a great impact on the interpretations of recent decades; in the second, we intend to demonstrate the essential features of Locke’s republicanism in the Second Treatise. The entirety of the text comes about when Locke makes the transition from the individual, concerned with himself and his possessions, to a moral behaviour incorporated into the promotion of the public good, as he argues in the Second Treatise (II, 131, 135 and 159). From this point on, we can read it through a republican lens.