The reception of Locke's political philosophy in Denmark: an historical approach

The reception of Locke's ideas in Scandinavian context has never been fully explored. The Danish reception of Locke's political ideas has suffered from an astonishing lack of translations until the recent trans- lations of Two Treatises of Government (1996) and A Letter concerning toleration (2003). In spite of this, Locke's political ideas have been discussed in Denmark from the eighteenth century onwards, but until the middle of the twentieth century the focus was placed on Locke's metaphysics, educational ideas, religion and epistemology. Having aroused some interest in the Enlightenment, Locke's political philosophy seems to have been neglected in Denmark till about 1860, then - until about 1960 - it began to be mentioned in presentations of Locke, first in histories of philosophy and later in theological introductions by university professors. Extracts and presentations of Locke's political works in the second half of the twentieth century - and finally the integral translations of Two Treatises and A Letter concerning toleration - reflect a growing interest in Locke's political philosophy, first criticised by Marxists, then admired by liberalists and now actually discussed in the context of the religious conflict in the multicultural society.