This is The late 17th century philosopher John Locke is often described as the first of the British

empiricists. All knowledge he thought came through experience.

Locke made seminal contributions in many areas, in metaphysics, epistemology and personal identity.

He also wrote prolifically about politics and the justification for the state.

Some of his most significant writings were produced in Holland. He'd been

forced to flee into exile in 1683 after a rumor of his involvement in a plot to assassinate

King Charles II. This was a time when Europe was driven by religious conflict

between Catholics and Protestants. Not surprisingly, Lock became preoccupied

with the issue of religious toleration, the subject of this interview.

Professor John Dunn is a John Locke scholar.

John Dunn, welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Well, it's very nice to be trying to talk for you.

What do you want me to talk about?

Well, I'd really like to know about Lock, John Lock, on toleration.

I wonder if you could say something, first of all, about who John Lock was.

Well, Lock was at Oxford Don in the 17th century England who escaped from Oxford into

politics and into cosmopolitan intellectual life and ended up writing some very important books.

But for our purposes what he wrote on toleration is the most important and he wrote several letters on

toleration that became hugely influential.

Yes, that's right. He wrote about toleration that became hugely influential? Yes, that's right.

He wrote about toleration over the whole of his intellectual life really.

It was his most consistent preoccupation,

...