This collection considers one of the most important figures of the modern canon of political philosophy, John Locke. A physician by training and profession, Locke not only wrote one of the most important and well-known treatises of the modern canon, but also made important contributions in the areas of seventeenth-century law and public policy, epistemology, philosophy of language, religion, and economics.
There has been a long-standing debate in feminist scholarship on Locke as to whether this early founder of modern liberal thought was a strong feminist or whether he ushered in a new, and uniquely modern, form of sexism. The essays grapple with this controversy but also move beyond it to the meaning of gender, the status of femininity and masculinity, and how these affect Locke’s construction of the state and law.
The volume opens with three of the early “classic” feminist essays on Locke and follows them with reflective essays by their original authors that engage Locke with issues of globalization and international justice. Other essays examine Locke’s midwifery notes, his treatise on education, his writings on Christianity, his contributions to poor-law policy, his economic writings, and his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In addition to essays by leading feminist theorists, the volume also includes essays by some leading Locke scholars for whom gender is not normally a primary focus, so that the volume should speak to a wide range of scholarly interests and concerns.
Besides the editors, the contributors are Teresa Brennan, Melissa Butler, Terrell Carver, Carole Pateman, Carol Pech, Gordon Schochet, Mary Lyndon Shanley, Jeremy Waldron, Joanne Wright, and Linda Zerilli.
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye
Nancy J. Hirschmann and Kirstie M. McClure
1. Marriage Contract and Social Contract in Seventeenth-Century English Political Thought
Mary Lyndon Shanley
Afterword: Equality, Liberty, and Marriage Contracts
Mary Lyndon Shanley
2. “Mere Auxiliaries to the Commonwealth”: Women and the Origins of Liberalism
Teresa Brennan and Carole Pateman
Afterword: Mere Auxiliaries to the Commonwealth in an Age of Globalization
Teresa Brennan and Carole Pateman
3. Early Liberal Roots of Feminism: John Locke’s Attack on Patriarchy
Melissa Butler
Afterword: Roots and Shoots—Revisiting Locke’s Attack on Patriarchy
Melissa Butler
4. Models of Politics and the Place of Women in Locke’s Political Thought
Gordon Schochet
5. Intersectionality Before Intersectionality Was Cool: The Importance of Class to Feminist Interpretations of Locke
Nancy J. Hirschmann
6. Gender and Narrative in Locke’s Two Treatises of Government
Terrell Carver
7. Recovering Locke’s Midwifery Notes
Joanne H. Wright
8. Locke, Adam, and Eve
Jeremy Waldron
9. “His Nuts for a Piece of Metal”: Fetishism in the Monetary Writings of John Locke
Carol Pech
10. Philosophy’s Gaudy Dress: Fantasy and Rhetoric in the Lockean Social Contract
Linda K. Zerilli
Notes on Contributors
Further Reading
Index
“As a whole, this volume provides a challenging and engaging contribution to current debates regarding the adequacy of liberal egalitarianism for radical social and political reform. These are “hot button” issues in feminist scholarship, which makes this volume valuable not only to advancing Locke scholarship but for feminist scholarship as well.”
