Abstract

As the title intimates, my aims in this essay are twofold: first, I wish to defend the claim that there are radical dimensions to John Locke's thought, and by extension, that there are radical dimensions to the tradition of discourse which seeks to provide an intellectual defence for the social practices and institutional structures characteristic of a market society and a democratic political system insofar as such an intellectual defence is dependent upon or makes use of certain Lockean statements and arguments. As this objective maps out a rather large and exceedingly difficult terrain for discussion, prudence dictates that I provide the reader with a brief clarification of the direction and limitations of this part of my argument before indicating the second and, in my view, more difficult problem to be addressed