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A Letter Concerning Toleration and Other Writings
A
Letter Concerning Toleration and Other Writings
brings together the principal writings on religious toleration and freedom of expression by one of the greatest philosophers in the Anglophone tradition: John Locke. The son of Puritans, Locke (1632–1704) became an Oxford academic, a physician, and, through the patronage of the Earl of Shaftesbury, secretary to the Council of Trade and Plantations and to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. A colleague of Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton and a member of the English Royal Society, Locke lived and wrote at the dawn of the Enlightenment, a period during which traditional mores, values, and customs were being questioned.
This volume opens with Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) and also contains his earlier Essay Concerning Toleration (1667), extracts from the Third Letter for Toleration (1692), and a large body of his briefer essays and memoranda on this theme. As editor Mark Goldie writes in the introduction, A Letter Concerning Toleration "was one of the seventeenth century's most eloquent pleas to Christians to renounce religious persecution." Locke's contention, fleshed out in the Essay and in the Third Letter, that men should enjoy a perfect and "uncontrollable liberty" in matters of religion was shocking to many in seventeenth-century England. Still more shocking, perhaps, was its corollary, that the magistrate had no standing in matters of religion. Taken together, these works forcefully present Locke's belief in the necessary interrelation between limited government and religious freedom. At a time when the world is again having to come to terms with profound tensions among diverse religions and cultures, they are a canonical statement of the case for religious and intellectual freedom.
This Liberty Fund edition provides the first fully annotated modern edition of A Letter Concerning Toleration, offering the reader explanatory guidance to Locke's rich reservoir of references and allusions. The introduction, a chronology of Locke's life, and a reading guide further equip the reader with historical, theological, and philosophical contexts for understanding one of the world's major thinkers on toleration, who lived and wrote at the close of Europe's Reformation and the dawn of the Enlightenment.
This book is the first volume in Liberty Fund's Thomas Hollis Library series. As general editor David Womersley explains, Thomas Hollis (1720–1774) was a businessman and philanthropist who gathered books he thought were essential to the understanding of liberty and donated them to libraries in Europe and America in the years preceding the American Revolution.
John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher and physician.
Mark Goldie is Reader in British Intellectual History, University of Cambridge and is co-editor of The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450–1700 and editor of John Locke: Two Treatises of Government and John Locke: Political Essays.
David Womersley is Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. His most recent book is Divinity and State.
This volume opens with Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) and also contains his earlier Essay Concerning Toleration (1667), extracts from the Third Letter for Toleration (1692), and a large body of his briefer essays and memoranda on this theme. As editor Mark Goldie writes in the introduction, A Letter Concerning Toleration "was one of the seventeenth century's most eloquent pleas to Christians to renounce religious persecution." Locke's contention, fleshed out in the Essay and in the Third Letter, that men should enjoy a perfect and "uncontrollable liberty" in matters of religion was shocking to many in seventeenth-century England. Still more shocking, perhaps, was its corollary, that the magistrate had no standing in matters of religion. Taken together, these works forcefully present Locke's belief in the necessary interrelation between limited government and religious freedom. At a time when the world is again having to come to terms with profound tensions among diverse religions and cultures, they are a canonical statement of the case for religious and intellectual freedom.
This Liberty Fund edition provides the first fully annotated modern edition of A Letter Concerning Toleration, offering the reader explanatory guidance to Locke's rich reservoir of references and allusions. The introduction, a chronology of Locke's life, and a reading guide further equip the reader with historical, theological, and philosophical contexts for understanding one of the world's major thinkers on toleration, who lived and wrote at the close of Europe's Reformation and the dawn of the Enlightenment.
This book is the first volume in Liberty Fund's Thomas Hollis Library series. As general editor David Womersley explains, Thomas Hollis (1720–1774) was a businessman and philanthropist who gathered books he thought were essential to the understanding of liberty and donated them to libraries in Europe and America in the years preceding the American Revolution.
John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher and physician.
Mark Goldie is Reader in British Intellectual History, University of Cambridge and is co-editor of The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450–1700 and editor of John Locke: Two Treatises of Government and John Locke: Political Essays.
David Womersley is Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. His most recent book is Divinity and State.
258 pages, Paperback
First published May 11, 2006
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About the author
John Locke
1,944 books1,436 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
John Locke was an English philosopher. He is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. This influence is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence.
Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin for modern conceptions of identity and "the self", figuring prominently in the later works of philosophers such as David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first Western philosopher to define the self through a continuity of "consciousness." He also postulated that the mind was a "blank slate" or "tabula rasa"; that is, contrary to Cartesian or Christian philosophy, Locke maintained that people are born without innate ideas.
John Locke was an English philosopher. He is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. This influence is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence.
Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin for modern conceptions of identity and "the self", figuring prominently in the later works of philosophers such as David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first Western philosopher to define the self through a continuity of "consciousness." He also postulated that the mind was a "blank slate" or "tabula rasa"; that is, contrary to Cartesian or Christian philosophy, Locke maintained that people are born without innate ideas.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 28, 2020
Este libro se compone de varios escritos de John Locke, hablando específicamente de "Carta Sobre la Tolerancia" es toda una experiencia al momento de leerlo, la forma en que desarrolla sus ideas siendo el un creyente y devoto católico le conceden mi total admiración, si consideramos que está publicado en 1689 cuando la iglesia aun tenia un gran monopolio de la cultura y el pensamiento; este hombre estaba adelantado a su época.
Logra tener claridad en respecto al respeto y tolerancia para todas las personas que no comparten nuestras ideas o creencias, inclusive invita a pregonar con el ejemplo para crear conciencia en la sociedad, ayudándola a crearse un juicio propio, interno no mediante la coacción o coerción.
En conclusión debería de ser un libro básico para todos, en especial para las personas que dirigen movimientos religiosos, educativos o políticos.
Logra tener claridad en respecto al respeto y tolerancia para todas las personas que no comparten nuestras ideas o creencias, inclusive invita a pregonar con el ejemplo para crear conciencia en la sociedad, ayudándola a crearse un juicio propio, interno no mediante la coacción o coerción.
En conclusión debería de ser un libro básico para todos, en especial para las personas que dirigen movimientos religiosos, educativos o políticos.
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July 10, 2021Thomas Hollis (1720-74) was an eighteenth-century Englishman who devoted his energies, his fortune, and his life to the cause of liberty.
CONTENTS
The Thomas Hollis Library, by David Womersley - vii
Introduction, by Mark Goldie - ix
Further Reading - xxv
Notes on the Texts - xxix
Chronology of Locke's Life - xli
Acknowledgements - xlvii
1. 'A letter Concerning Toleration' - 1
2. Excerpts from 'A Third Letter for Toleration' - 69
3. 'An Essay Concerning Toleration' - 105
4. Fragments on Toleration - 141
Index - 191
CONTENTS
The Thomas Hollis Library, by David Womersley - vii
Introduction, by Mark Goldie - ix
Further Reading - xxv
Notes on the Texts - xxix
Chronology of Locke's Life - xli
Acknowledgements - xlvii
1. 'A letter Concerning Toleration' - 1
2. Excerpts from 'A Third Letter for Toleration' - 69
3. 'An Essay Concerning Toleration' - 105
4. Fragments on Toleration - 141
Index - 191
July 15, 2025
"El hecho de permitir fácilmente que se promulguen leyes con cualquier otro fin, distinto a la seguridad del gobierno y a la protección del pueblo en la vida, riqueza y del gobierno produce a la humanidad daños mayores e irreparables"... Todo me recuerda a él, el gatito mimoso.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews