Page "Property" Paragraph 89

Among contemporary political thinkers who believe that natural persons enjoy rights to own property and to enter into contracts, there are two views about John Locke.

On the one hand there are ardent Locke admirers, such as W. H.

Hutt ( 1956 ), who praised Locke for laying down the " quintessence of individualism.

" On the other hand, there are those such as Richard Pipes who think that Locke's arguments are weak, and that undue reliance thereon has weakened the cause of individualism in recent times.

Pipes has written that Locke's work " marked a regression because it rested on the concept of Natural Law " rather than upon Harrington's sociological framework.