On the Edge of Anarchy (ebook)

Argumento de On the Edge of Anarchy (ebook)

This book completes A. John Simmons's exploration and development of Lockean moral and political philosophy, a project begun in The Lockean Theory of Rights (Princeton paperback edition, 1994). Here Simmons discusses the Lockean view of the nature of, grounds for, and limits on political relations between persons.

Originally published in 1993.

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"Simmons has many intelligent and thought-provoking things to say about Locke, and he is both painstaking and comprehensive in his efforts to relate his own position to the existing secondary literature on [this philosopher]."--American Political Science Review

"I can think of few political philosophers I prefer to John Simmons. He is a clear and very analytical writer. The professional philosopher may read him with profit, and the layman with ease."--F. H. Buckley, Liberty0List of Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction 3 Pt. 1 Nonconsensual Relations 11 1 The Lockean State of Nature 13 1.1 Locke's State of Nature 13 1.2 The Moral, Social, and Historical Dimensions 23 1.3 The Point of State-of-Nature Stories 33 2 Force and Right 40 2.1 The State of War 40 2.2 How Rights Are Lost 46 2.3 Despotism: Slavery and Absolute Government 48 Pt. 2 Consent and Government 57 3 Political Consent 59 3.1 The Content of Lockean Consent 59 3.2 Consent, Contract, and Trust 68 3.3 The Appeal of Consent Theory 72 4 The Varieties of Consent 80 4.1 Express and Tacit Consent 80 4.2 Majority Consent 90 Pt. 3 The Limits of Society 99 5 Inalienable Rights 101 5.1 The Property of Inalienability 101 5.2 Locke on Inalienability 108 5.3 Locke's Commitments 119 5.4 Toleration 123 5.5 Inalienability and Absolutism 137 6 Dissolution and Resistance 147 6.1 The Revolutionary Stance 147 6.2 The Right of Resistance 155 6.3 The Consequences of Dissolution 167 6.4 The Duty to Resist 178 Pt. 4 Consent and the Edge of Anarchy 193 7 The Critique of Lockean Consent Theory 197 7.1 Hume's Attack 197 7.2 The Meaning of Consent in Locke 202 8 Consent, Obligation, and Anarchy 218 8.1 Consent and Voting 218 8.2 Consent and Residence 225 8.3 Duress, Hard Choices, and Free Choice 232 8.4 Lockean Anarchism 248 Works Cited 271 Index 285