Comegna Locke Two Treatises

To begin our series on the book that practically made modern political philosophy, we join Locke in demoting Adam from global dictator to mere father.

How could humanity be fruitful and multiply if they are all slaves to their fathers?

Though Locke was no feminist, neither did he believe husbands had absolute rights over their wives, nor fathers over their children.

Locke cautions that the problem with Filmer's absolutism is that it allows wild-eyed, levelling revolutionaries an in-road to reform.

Locke shows his true purposes--On the ruins of Robert Filmer, he intends to erect his own justification for the modern state.

Locke's real purpose in overturning Filmer is erecting an unassailable new political order not subject to rebellions and revolution from below.

Locke explores the nature of sovereignty as part of his attack on Filmer.

In the Americas, two centuries after Locke, his system found its most devoted allies and it’s most deadly opponents.

After crushing Filmer's absolutist patriarchy, Locke begins to build up his own set of justifications for the state.

In one of his very worst philosophical leaps, Locke treats chattel slavery in the Atlantic world as a mere extension of war.