ANTONELLA BESUSSI

La gerarchia delle creature in Locke. Osservazioni e problemi

N. 154

Summary — The a. intends to illustrate some problems raised by the hierarchy of beings in Locke’s political philosophy. God, man, animal occupy three different and asymmetric levels and their relations are somewhat rigidly determined. The interesting aspect concerns the distribution of all men on the same level, which has decisive implications as regards the refusal of a patriarchalistic model of politics in favour of a contractualistic model, allowing to justify in a persuasive way the idea of equality. From this same premise it follows that all those who belong to the same level have the right to expect certain treatments from one another. In the difference man-animal, in the end, a rule is implicit for the distinction of means from end. Interesting are the cases which raise border problems among the levels for example that of the slave, a man reduced to the characteristics of the animal or of the tool. The relation between man an God, then, is classified as the advantageous dependence of an almost perfect creature on a kindly disposed creator; dependence that establishes fundamental similarity and affinity among those who share it. Children of the same father are horizontally placed on the same level in respect of who is vertical over them, but does not belong to their world. The world of men, then, is the world of parity.