John Locke

In the turbulent seventeenth century, amidst civil wars, revolutions, and religious disputes, John Locke became one of the minds that best understood — and best discussed — the price of authority and the value of liberty. This book traces his life and work from within: his formation, his medical-scientific turn, his proximity to power, exile, and the writing that established him as the father of modern empiricism and liberal thought. This ninth instalment also explores his grey areas: the limits of his tolerance, the centrality of property, and the uncomfortable part of colonialism. The result is a complete portrait of a thinker we continue to use to think about the present, precisely because his lights and shadows still challenge us.