richard ashcraft wrote the book two treatises of government.
richard ashcraft wrote the book two treatises of government.
who wrote the book two treatises of government?
richard ashcraft
two treatises of government









































two treatises of government (or two treatises of government: in the former, the false principles, and foundation of sir robert filmer, and his followers, are detected and overthrown. the latter is an essay concerning the true original, extent, and end of civil government) is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by john locke. the "first treatise" attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of robert filmer's "patriarcha", while the "second treatise" outlines locke's ideas for a more civilized society based on natural rights and contract theory.
two treatises of government
while the "two treatises" did not become popular until the 1760s, ideas from them did start to become important earlier in the century. according to goldie, "the crucial moment was 1701" and "the occasion was the kentish petition." the pamphlet war that ensued was one of the first times locke's ideas were invoked in a public debate, most notably by daniel defoe. locke's ideas did not go unchallenged and the periodical "the rehearsal", for example, launched a "sustained and sophisticated assault” against the "two treatises" and endorsed the ideology of patriarchalism. not only did patriarchalism continue to be a legitimate political theory in the 18th century, but as j. g. a. pocock and others have gone to great lengths to demonstrate, so was civic humanism and classical republicanism. pocock has argued that locke's "two treatises" had very little effect on british political theory; he maintains that there was no contractarian revolution. rather, he sees these other long-standing traditions as far more important for 18th-century british politics.
two treatises of government