ABSTRACT
Far more than Thomas Hobbes, John Locke engaged the Aristotelian intellectual tradition in his philosophical and political works while at the same time surpassing his predecessor in an extraordinary way: he legitimized the act of political resistance. The First Treatise of Government is Locke's counter to Robert Filmer. In this piece, Locke offers neither a Biblical defense nor a challenge to Filmer's interpretation of Scripture. Locke's connection of morals, religion and science to his revolutionary political message makes him at once less controversial than the heretical Hobbes yet politically radical in his own right. On the contrary, Locke was among the collaborators in Robert Boyle's experiments around 1664, and after a long friendship became one of his literary executors. Locke's approach to the work is grounded in the language and ethic of scientific inquiry. Locke's purpose in arguing against innate ideas was to promote the search for truth, to the extent that it is able to be discovered.
