The World Turned Upside Down: Winstanley, Locke, & Kant (was Re:

Michael Hoover hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us
Mon Oct 25 19:54:45 PDT 1999



> Why not pay homage to the radical wings of the Levellers, the Diggers,
> etc.? They came a century earlier than Kant! More importantly, their
> practice and ideas (on freedom & democracy) went much further than
> Locke, Kant, etc.
> ***** from Christopher Hill, _The World Turned Upside Down: Radical
> Ideas during the English Revolution_ (Penguin, 1972)
> </paraindent>Winstanley extended the Leveller justification of
> political democracy to economic democracy:
> Yoshie

Hill writes in 'Introduction' to collection of Winstanley's writings entitled _The Law of Freedom and Other Writings_ (Penguin, 1973) that W was working out collectivist theory that prefigured 19th & 20th century socialism & communism. H asserts that Winstanley understood something critical to modern political thought: state power is related to property system and ideas that support that system. Hill also suggests that W is modern in wanting a revolution that would replace competition with community concern and for insisting that political freedom is impossible without economic equality. Hill's critics assert that he reads present concerns into the past and they argue that he ignores theological and cultural context. Michael Hoover



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list