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The Hebraic Roots of John Locke’s Doctrine of Charity

December 24, 2008 | Dr. Yechiel M. Leiter

In her path-breaking essays on political Hebraism, Professor Fania Oz-Salzberger identifies John Locke as belonging to the class of "moral economists" whose reading of the Hebrew Bible as a historical and political text caused him to argue for the hungry man's "right to surplusage"[1] This means that even though Locke championed the idea that man's labor entitles him to unlimited acquisition of material possessions, God remains the ultimate owner of all property and as such