The Empire of Habit

John Locke, Discipline, and the Origins of Liberalism
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58046-561-8
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, 168 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 431 g

The Empire of Habit critiques the traditional interpretation of Locke's political thought, revealing that the foundation of Lockean liberalism is not natural law but discipline and habit.

John Locke's political thought provides much of the theoretical underpinning for our own liberal democracy. According to Locke's liberalism, the rights and freedoms of civil society are grounded in natural law, which is known andobserved by all citizens.

In this volume, John Baltes challenges this interpretation of Locke. Examining Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Baltes reveals aLocke who is in conflict with the natural-law philosopher found in his famous Two Treatises of Government. In his works on epistemology and education, Locke describes morality as a construct and human nature as malleable. Drawing on Foucault's concept of discipline, Baltes reconsiders Locke's liberalism and shows that it requires citizens governed not by natural law but habit, that is, subjects who are constructed by carefully controlled space and visibility and regulated in their conduct to become capable of self-government. The Empire of Habit thus offers not only a new reading of one of the most important political philosophers of the Western tradition but also newinsight into our own political liberalism.

John Baltes is an independent scholar of political theory.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Baltes, John

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction

1. Locke on Religious Crisis and Civil War: Nominalism, Skepticism, and the Essay in Context
2. Locke's Inverted Quarantine: Discipline, Panopticism, and the Making of the Liberal Subject
3. Locke's Labor Loosed: Discipline and the Idle
4. Locke the Landgrave: Inegalitarian Discipline

Notes
Bibliography
Index