Sustained encounters with political theories involve protracted labor. In a study of John Locke's political thought, we thus do well to train our attention on the Lockean view of the just rewards for toil. Locke's labor theory of ownership has helped to win a place for its formulator among the great thinkers in Western civilization. That theory has correctly been viewed by sundry commentators as one key means by which Locke grappled with many of his most pressing concerns. It has also helped to give Locke a reputation as an eloquent spokesman for political individualism – a reputation that lingers widely in the face of some partial challenges during recent years. Therefore, by concentrating on the nexus that Locke postulated between work and ownership, I aim to probe the fundaments of his political thinking.

More exactly, this book tries to ferret out the reversals which Lockean individualism undergoes – reversals based on precisely the individualistic line of thought which they undo. In some respects, this study will countenance the conventional view of Locke as a supporter of economic and political atomism. In most salient respects, however, my critique will cast grave doubt on that conventional judgment; and the doubts posed here are more worrying and wide-ranging than those raised by several other recent interpreters of Locke. In the course of laying stress on the individualistic theses which Locke upheld, this book will demonstrate that those theses undermine the integrity of individualism.