Interesting. Wills has certainly "got the chops" (as musicians say), so he could be right-or at least substantially right. When I read Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" I was struck by how often the Declaration of Independence sounded borrowed or paraphrased from it. Though he seems to have differences with some of its current stances, Wills DOES come from a strong Roman Catholic background, and I wonder if it was Wills that needed the philosophical framework provided by Hutcheson more than Jefferson.
To ME, the most important contribution from Locke (and rooted in Sola Scriptura) was the notion that the "authority" that is the basis of government comes directly from "God" and does not need to be administered through church, monarch, or combination of the two, but rather that the collective right of individuals who are each covenanting directly with God is what gives "us" the right to self government.
Though it's not worth dropping all other activities to devote an hour to, the radio show at the attached link provides an entertaining illustration of how all "law" (and hence ownership) is ultimately derived from some assumption of "authority"-regardless of whether it's "divine" or not.
My reading of the Locke interpretation is that Wills is addressing ahistorical neoliberal claims about Jefferson. I could be wrong, but that was how I read it.
Interesting. Wills has certainly "got the chops" (as musicians say), so he could be right-or at least substantially right. When I read Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" I was struck by how often the Declaration of Independence sounded borrowed or paraphrased from it. Though he seems to have differences with some of its current stances, Wills DOES come from a strong Roman Catholic background, and I wonder if it was Wills that needed the philosophical framework provided by Hutcheson more than Jefferson.
To ME, the most important contribution from Locke (and rooted in Sola Scriptura) was the notion that the "authority" that is the basis of government comes directly from "God" and does not need to be administered through church, monarch, or combination of the two, but rather that the collective right of individuals who are each covenanting directly with God is what gives "us" the right to self government.
Though it's not worth dropping all other activities to devote an hour to, the radio show at the attached link provides an entertaining illustration of how all "law" (and hence ownership) is ultimately derived from some assumption of "authority"-regardless of whether it's "divine" or not.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1892048963714
My reading of the Locke interpretation is that Wills is addressing ahistorical neoliberal claims about Jefferson. I could be wrong, but that was how I read it.