The Meaning of Locke

You can hardly fault John Locke (1632–1704) for never setting foot on US soil, even as Britain’s American colonies grew into intellectual and religious polestars in the English philosopher’s lifetime. “A child of the Reformation”, per Mark Goldie, “and a progenitor of the Enlightenment”, Locke didn’t need to cross the Atlantic to experience more than his share of political upheavals. In 1642, his Puritan father paused his lawyer duties to serve as cavalry captain to the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War, which ended in 1652, the year his son enrolled at Christ Church (Oxford) to read philosophy and later medicine.