ABSTRACT
Although the word “liberal” was not used to describe a political position until the early 1800s, John Locke (1632–1704) usually is considered the first philosopher to take a clearly liberal perspective on political matters. The power of a political society or “commonwealth,” Locke claimed, is limited to the protection of its members’ “civil interests.” These include life, liberty, and property, but not the private sphere of religious belief—as he argued in A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689). In his Second Treatise of Government—published in 1690 after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, but written earlier—Locke began from premises quite similar to those of Thomas Hobbes, but arrived at conclusions more recognizably liberal. Everyone has a natural right to life, liberty, and property, Locke said, and no one has authority over us without our consent. Any government that violates our rights releases us from any obligation to obey it and may, indeed, entitle us to overthrow it and establish a new government.
