John Locke (Lost)
John Locke was born to teenager Emily Locke on May 30, 1956. In his early years he showed extreme promise in his intelligence. After being placed in government care as a ward of the state he found himself in a variety of foster homes. He was visited in one such home by Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), who described Locke as "extremely special". Locke had a number of foster siblings over the years: Jeannie, who died as a child when she fell off of a set of monkey bars; Melissa, who was prone to bullying John; and an unnamed brother with whom Locke played the game Mouse Trap.
Two Treatises of Government
Jerome Huyler and Michael. P. Zuckert approach Locke in the broader context of his oeuvre and historical influence. Locke is situated within changing religious, philosophical, scientific, and political dimensions of 17th century England. Objecting to the use of the contemporary concept of economic man to describe Locke’s view of human nature, Huyler emphases the “virtue of industriousness” of Locke’s Protestant England. Productive work is man’s earthly function or calling, ordained by God and required by self-preservation. The government’s protection of property rights insures that the results of industry, i.e. “fruits of one’s labor,” are secure. Locke’s prohibition of ill-gotten gains, whether for well-connected gentry or the profligate, is not a lack of Locke’s foresight to the problems in the latter stages of liberalism but an application of equal protection of the law to every individual.