Is Robinson Crusoe a Lockean Novel?
On the Works of Locke and Defoe: The Lockean Aspects of Robinson Crusoe Proposals about how things could be in different circumstances are ultimately based in fiction. Sometimes, the claims seem rational. They stem from logical steps. However, without an actual test environment, the claims are just mere conjecture. That is not to say that fiction has no role in modern thought. Fiction, especially those striving to achieve verisimilitude, can provide an artificial environment in which one can judge the merit of various proposals and understand how it plays a role in society. The original Robinsonade, Robinson Crusoe, by author Daniel Defoe, is one such fictional account. It depicts a man stranded in nature without society, grounds for a state proposed by Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke in his work Second Treatise on Civil Government. Although the protagonist of Robinson Crusoe makes …show more content…
He claims to and acts in a manner consistent with Locke’s proposals simply because it is all that is available to him. Given the opportunity, Crusoe is still ultimately materialistic. He makes an obscene number of trips to both moored ships for their goods (which he arguably did not produce by his own labors). He takes as much as he can, going insofar as to take dozens of dining utensils – far more than he could ever use. When finding money, he claims that it is “nasty sorry useless stuff” in his current predicament (a claim consistent with Locke’s idea of how money is entirely a social concoction and only useful within society) but nonetheless still takes it with him. At moments, Crusoe even fancies himself as lord and owner of the entire island. Here, it can be seen that Crusoe may have one set of rhetoric when thinking about the subject of ownership, but his behaviors are contrary to that Lockean rhetoric when provided the
On the Works of Locke and Defoe: The Lockean Aspects of Robinson Crusoe Proposals about how things could be in different circumstances are ultimately based in fiction. Sometimes, the claims seem rational. They stem from logical steps. However, without an actual test environment, the claims are just mere conjecture. That is not to say that fiction has no role in modern thought. Fiction, especially those striving to achieve verisimilitude, can provide an artificial environment in which one can judge the merit of various proposals and understand how it plays a role in society. The original Robinsonade, Robinson Crusoe, by author Daniel Defoe, is one such fictional account. It depicts a man stranded in nature without society, grounds for a state proposed by Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke in his work Second Treatise on Civil Government. Although the protagonist of Robinson Crusoe makes …show more content…
He claims to and acts in a manner consistent with Locke’s proposals simply because it is all that is available to him. Given the opportunity, Crusoe is still ultimately materialistic. He makes an obscene number of trips to both moored ships for their goods (which he arguably did not produce by his own labors). He takes as much as he can, going insofar as to take dozens of dining utensils – far more than he could ever use. When finding money, he claims that it is “nasty sorry useless stuff” in his current predicament (a claim consistent with Locke’s idea of how money is entirely a social concoction and only useful within society) but nonetheless still takes it with him. At moments, Crusoe even fancies himself as lord and owner of the entire island. Here, it can be seen that Crusoe may have one set of rhetoric when thinking about the subject of ownership, but his behaviors are contrary to that Lockean rhetoric when provided the