ABSTRACT
Like a number of other philosophers, such as Hobbes, Locke shows a decided preference for fighting wars on two fronts. This preference is perhaps most clearly visible in Locke's philosophy of the physical world. Against the Scholastics he defends the explanatory virtues of the new corpuscularian hypothesis; against the Cartesians he defends a tentative commitment to atomism while strenuously opposing their dogmatism about the essence of matter. Locke's philosophy of religion conforms to much the same pattern: he upholds the supremacy of reason in this area against two distinct sets of enemies. The Roman Catholics are attacked for their uncritical submission to papal authority and for their commitment to the absurd dogma of transubstantiation. The enthusiasts are attacked for elevating the supposed inner light of private revelation above the God-given faculty of reason. In an unusually eloquent and famous sentence Locke proclaims that ‘Reason must be our last Judge and Guide in every Thing’ (Essay IV. xix. 14, p. 704).
