GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

492 - POLITICS
the distinction between society and government entails,
as we have seen, that, if the government is abolished,
society still endures. But the Social Contract theory, in
the form in which Locke maintained it, requires us to
suppose that the abolition of government involves man's
relapse into a pre-social condition. This admittedly would
be a condition of peaceable and sociably disposed persons,
but it would not be the same as the condition introduced
by society, since it is the establishment of government
which puts an end to this condition and establishes the
condition of society. Such, at least, arc the contentions of
the Social Contract theory, as Locke states it. It b difficult
in the light of these contentions to see how society could
survive the abolition of government; yet that it does so, is
precisely what Locke, in making his distinction between
society and government, maintains. The Social Contract
theory is, however, in no sense essential to Locke's political
philosophy.
Praise of Locke, The virtues of this philosophy arc
many and great. It is Locke's political philosophy which,
more fully than that of any other writer, is embodied in the
principles and applied, albeit
intermittently, in the
practice of the government of this country. It is, therefore,
natural that, having lived for over two hundred and fifty
years under a democratic constitution which owes so
much to Locke, we should have come to take as selfevident
the principles upon which that constitution is
founded, and for granted the conclusions which follow
from the
principles. It is only to-day that they are being
challenged. Reflecting upon this challenge, it is difficult
to avoid the conclusion that the circumstance that a
growing refusal to adhere to the principles of Locke's
philosophy by the rulers of contemporary European
countries is found to synchronize with a decline,
which may shortly become a collapse, of European civiliza-
tion, is in no sense accidental. The greatest merit of Locke's
political philosophy is w^at we should now call the prag-