James Wilson’s Reidian Alternative to John Locke

Scholarship on the American founding generally argues for a Lockean liberal republicanism as the philosophical base for American political institutions. But American founding father James Wilson rejected Locke's epistemology and moral science in favor of Thomas Reid's as a theoretical support for popular sovereignty in a large republic. This article offers a new interpretation of Wilson's writings by directly juxtaposing his and Locke's epistemology and moral science. A close and comparative reading of Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Wilson's Lectures on Law demonstrates that Wilson thinks that American political culture needed to include support for universal suffrage, understanding government's end as promoting individual happiness found in pursuing virtue rather than property, and that all citizens are responsible for the truthful reputation of being a virtuous person. Wilson uses Reid's epistemology and moral science to offer a cultural support for popular sovereignty that acts as an alternative to Lockean self-interest.