Viewpoints Comparative Questions

  1. According to each author, what is the ultimate source of political authority? How did each author’s views on this subject shape his understanding of the nature of government?
  2. What aspects of Locke’s theory might Bossuet have found most objectionable? Why? What might Locke have been most critical of in Bossuet’s argument? Why?
  3. What did each author see as the purpose of government? On what, if anything, might they have agreed?

John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (London: A. Millar et al., 1764).