Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Locke's inapplicability to modern society

Locke's philosophy derives from two foundational concepts that become inapplicable, at the individual level, in the modern world. Namely, the notion of independent, political agency in a stakeholder model resting on the "categorical parity" of property ownership. It leads to a disparity baked into the stakeholder model, which believes that property ownership establishes the measure of responsibility, self-interest, and political agency to decide on political issues. Russell recognizes that modern organizations and their property interests are of a size and complexity that aren't comparable to those of everyday property owners. This disparity is most evident in how corporations, due to their size and wealth, have interests on a scale of power, complexity, and consequence that completely drown out the interests of individual stakeholders. Russell writes:

"Locke's political philosophy was, on the whole, adequate and useful until the industrial revolution. Since then, it has been increasingly unable to tackle the important problems. The power of property, as embodied in vast corporations, grew beyond anything imagined by Locke. The necessary functions of State--for example, in education--increased enormously. Nationalism brought about an alliance, sometimes an amalgamation, of economic and political power, making war the principle means of competition. The single separate citizen has no longer the power or independence that he had in Locke's speculations. Our age is one of organization, and its conflicts are between organizations, not between separate individuals. The state of nature, as Locke says, still exists as between States. A new international Social Contract is necessary before we can enjoy the promised benefits of government. When once an international government has been created, much of Locke's political philosophy will again become applicable, though not part of it that deals with private property." (p. 640)


From Bertrand Russell's "A History of Western Philosophy"

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