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Reasoned Freedom: John Locke and Enlightenment (review)
- Journal of the History of Philosophy
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 32, Number 2, April 1994
- pp. 306-308
- 10.1353/hph.1994.0036
- Review
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
306 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 32:2 APRIL 1994 One regret that I wish to voice is that the volume could have had more depth in relation to Descartes's conception of the mind. For instance, although Cartesian dualism is notoriously unpopular in contemporary philosophy, Descartes's main argument for it continues to attract a lot of attention. Scholarship about this argument is often very sophisticated philosophically.* Cottingham briefly mentions this interest in his introduction, but the uninformed reader is likely to come away without realizing the philosophical interest of the argument. As is certainly a virtue in a volume that aims to function as a reference work on Descartes, the collection has a good bibliography, and the essays usually contain extensive , useful references to secondary literature and other sources in footnotes. On a few occasions one would wish for more. Thus Clarke relates Descartes's views about science to Aristotelian scholasticism, but without references to scholastic sources, or to secondary sources that might contain such references. Markie discusses objections to aspects of the cogito without mentioning that these objections were voiced centuries ago by Hume and Kant. Given the breadth of its offerings, and its readability, this volume should, indeed, prove to be a very useful companion to Descartes. MARLEEN ROZEMOND Stanford University Peter A. Schouls. Reasoned Freedom: John Locke and Enlightenment. Ithaca: CorneU University Press, 1992. Pp. x + 243. Cloth, $37.5 o. Paper, $13.95. Schouls sees Descartes as the greatest of the "forefathers" of the Enlightenment and l.x~ke as second only to him. At "the core of Enlightenment thinking" are the concepts of freedom, progress and self-mastery, all closely tied to concepts of reason and education . Locke influenced the Enlightenment through his views about reason, freedom, and a master passion for self-mastery as these are expounded in the Essay corzceming Human Understanding and inform both his theory of education and his strong belief in progress 0-3). Locke thinks that we each have a duty to achieve total epistemic and moral autonomy (4, 8, 33, 45, 139). We are never to accept any proposition unless we see its grounds for ourselves. We are never to act on any desire until it has been approved by our own reason. Locke is a revolutionary thinker because he imposes these methodological requirements, and his revolutionary politics follows from them 06, 2o, 22). We can satisfy the requirements because we possess infallible reason and a will that ~Just a few examples are Margaret Wilson, Descartes(Roudedge and Kegan Paul: New York, 1978), t85-aoo; Stephen Schiffer, "Descartes on His Essence," PhilosophicalReview 85 (1976): 2145 ; James Van Cleve, "Conceivabilityand the Cartesian Argument for Dualism," PacificPhilosophical Quarterly64 0988): 35-45- For my own view of the argument see my "Descartes's Case for Dualism," forthcoming in thisjournal. I placeDescartes'sdualism in historicalcontext in "The Role of the Intellect in Descartes's Case for the Incorporeity of the Mind," in Essayson thePhilosophyand Scienceof Rer~ Descartes, ed. Stephen Voss (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 97-x 14. BOOK REWEWS 307 transcends natural determination. Our will enables us to resist any desire long enough for reason to examine it. If we reason and will properly we achieve self-mastery, through acquiring a master passion for it (163). Failure here displays degeneracy, and makes us less than fullyhuman 066). Education should instill only the habits of critically examining whatever is proposed for belief and of reviewing desires before acting. Locke's views on education thus embody his revolutionary philosophy. Because education can help anyone to develop and gratify a master passion for self-mastery, Locke optimistically believes in progress. Schouls argues that Locke's claim that reason is infallible has no rationaljustification. Locke is merely dogmatic here (80). Since he couples this dogma with his revolutionary view about not accepting unproven propositions, his thought is deeply incoherent (90). His view about action is also incoherent. To act freely is to act as an undetermined cause (147). But to act rationally is to submit oneself to the dictates of reason (157). Both selfdetermination and submission to reason are required by human nature. "Locke has ascribed fundamental features to human nature...