Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door 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

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Empire of Habit: John Locke, Discipline, and the Origins of Liberalism

The Empire of Habit: John Locke, Discipline, and the Origins of Liberalism

Baltes, John

Hardcover

PhilosophyLiterary CriticismGeneral Political Science

ISBN10: 1580465617
ISBN13: 9781580465618
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
Published: Jun 15 2016
Pages: 168
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.70 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
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.

Also in

Literary Criticism

View All