Locke on Knowledge, Politics and Religion: New Interpretations from Japan

Description

Locke scholarship has been flourishing in Japan for several decades, but its output is largely unknown to the West. This collection makes available in English for the first time the fruits of recent Japanese research, opening up the possibility of advancing Locke studies on an international scale. Covering three important areas of Locke's philosophical thought – knowledge and experimental method, law and politics, and religion and toleration – this volume criticizes established interpretations and replaces them with novel alternatives, breaking away from standard narratives and providing fresh ways of looking at Locke's relationship with philosophers such as Boyle, Berkeley and Hume. The specific topics that have been selected are ones that continue to have important contemporary moral and political implications, from constitutionalism and toleration to marriage and the death penalty. Applying Locke's views to 21st-century questions, this collection presents provocative readings of the defining aspects of Locke's philosophical thought, stimulating current debates and heralding a new era of collaborative work for Locke scholars around the world. Contents Illustrations Contributors Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Locke and Japan Part I Knowledge and experimental method 1 Locke and non-propositional knowledge 2 Boyle and Locke on primary and secondary qualities: A reappraisal 3 Berkeley’s experimental method in An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision Part II Law and politics 4 A defence of Locke’s consent theory against Hume’s critique 5 Locke’s political constitutionalism 6 The death penalty and a Lockean impossibilism Part III Religion and toleration 7 Locke’s harm argument and the largeness of toleration 8 Salvation and reasonableness in Locke’s Reasonableness of Christianity 9 Locke on sex, marriage and the state Index