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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in Locke's Political Thought

Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in Locke's Political Thought

Mehta, Uday Singh

Hardcover

Series: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs (Hardcover)

PhilosophyBiographies GeneralGeneral Political Science

ISBN10: 0801427568
ISBN13: 9780801427565
Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr
Published: Sep 10 1992
Pages: 200
Weight: 1.03
Height: 0.63 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

The enduring appeal of liberalism lies in its commitment to the idea that human beings have a natural potential to live as free and equal individuals. The realization of this potential, however, is not a matter of nature, but requires that people be molded by a complex constellation of political and educational institutions. In this eloquent and provocative book, Uday Singh Mehta investigates in the major writings of John Locke the implications of this tension between individuals and the institutions that mold them. The process of molding, he demonstrates, involves an external conformity and an internal self-restraint that severely limit the scope of individuality.
Mehta explores the centrality of the human imagination in Locke's thought, focusing on his obsession with the potential dangers of the cognitive realm. Underlying Locke's fears regarding the excesses of the imagination is a political anxiety concerning how to limit their potential effects. In light of Locke's views on education, Mehta concludes that the promise of liberation at the heart of liberalism is vitiated by its constraints on cognitive and political freedom.

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