Being Human: The Status of Man in John Locke’s (1632-1704) Natural Philosophy

FAIN: FEL-268029-20

Allison Kuklok
Saint Michael's College (Colchester, VT 05446-0001)

Research and writing leading to a book on John Locke’s natural philosophy.

John Locke maintains that there is a class of things consisting of all and only creatures who have that set of rights and duties that we ordinarily ascribe to human beings, where this is commonly understood to be a claim about our species. But Locke is also commonly read as denying that species exist at all. Recent proposals that define this class by appeal to capacities whose moral significance in no way presupposes the reality of biological species face significant challenges. I argue that Locke never denied that species exist, nor did he doubt that some creatures are human and that others are not. While the Locke who emerges is a less radical philosopher than ordinarily thought, what Locke loses in notoriety he also gains in consistency. My book offers a reading on which Locke the epistemologist and metaphysician finds a more perfect alignment with Locke the philosopher of morals and politics.