His utilitarianism was the first efficient substitute for the labored metaphysics of the contract school; and even if he was not the first to see through its pretensions--that is perhaps the claim of Shaftesbury--he was the first to show the grounds of their uselessness.
Laski discusses the significance of utilitarianism as a practical alternative to complex metaphysical theories in political thought, highlighting its relevance in modern philosophy.
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The theorist of the Revolution is Locke; and it was his conscious effort to justify the innovations of 1688.
Yet such defects must not blind us to the general rightness of their insight.
The main thing was to be rid of the Divine Right of kings.
The charge that he supported the Revolution in America and deserted it in France is without meaning; for in the one there is no word that can honorably be twisted to support the other.
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