Locke e il Costituzionalismo. Etica, politica,governo civile. In Appendice versione italiana di: J.Locke, Costituzione della Carolina, Antica Costituzione Inglese

The volume offers a historical- genetics reconstruction of Locke's thought on constitutionalism. The time period considered is between 1669, when they issued Fundamental Constitution of Carolina and the 1697 - '98 years which were written Old England Legal Constitution and Some of the Chief Grievances of the Present Constitution of Virginia, with An Essay Towards the Remedies Thereof, (better known as Essay on Virginia). The book offers three levels of contextualization of the writings of Locke: the first concerns the analysis of the historical peculiarities of England and the American colonies during the century XVII and, on this basis, the debate on constitutionalism; the second concerns the relationship existing between the thought of Locke and the philosophical debate of his time with particular reference to natural law, theory of motivation relationship - bond and comparison between the supporters of absolute monarchy and the limited. The constitutional vision of Locke's maturity is, in fact, due to the particular interpretation he gives of the relationship between the law of nature, motivation to action and the nature and function of political society and civil government; the third concerns the placement of Fundamental Constitution of Carolina and of the Essay and Virginia on the inside, not only the process of developing a complete constitutional theory, but the entire Lockean thought. For this reason, in the book, the plot is found that colleague and, at the same time defines the specific fields, ethics and politics to epistemology, anthropology to theology. In the discussion are dismantled and reconstructed several times, the "threads" that make up this network in order to understand continuity, audits, investigations, operated by Locke, over time. The book reconstructs the path that leads Locke elaboration of a semi-feudal constitution, like the one of Carolina, which reflects the philosophical and theological present in Essays on Natural Law (Essays on the Law of Nature) and, together, a reality, as the English one heavily connected to the tradition and to the arrangement of hierarchical society, and therefore less "imaginative" than appeared in E. Labulaye (whose essay on the Constitution of Carolina is discussed in ch. VI), to the theorization of constitutionalism based on popular sovereignty, the fiduciary proxy to rulers, such as to justify the revolution when they repeatedly behave in a manner contrary to the interests the people and infringes his freedom. In the concluding chapter of the book, where its analyzed the relationship between the thought of Locke and the British constitutional tradition, we highlights the original features of his vision in the light of the findings from Essay on Virginia and Old England Legal Constitution. The characterizing points are: 1. The interpretation of the relationship the government - people who, unlike the Whig tradition, is not based on a government contract, but on a fiduciary proxy; 2. The "discovery" of pluralism with the related problem of the government of the conflict between different conceptions of the good; 3. The idea that the civil magistrate should regardless of the intervention and the morality of individual if they do not represent a danger to social peace, so that the state should be politically neutral with respect to controversial conceptions of the good life; 4. The need for the State, in face to"enthusiasm" that often characterizes human behavior to be authoritative and guarantor of the certainty of punishment in fulfillment of the requirements from Habeas Corpus Act, 5. A conception of popular sovereignty that is not necessarily expressed in a constitutional power over time because if the constitution is based on correct principles as they reflect the law of nature, they should not be changed; 6. The revolution, understood as go back t legality, as a last resort, but legitimate and necessary when governments do not respect the laws and are not sent to the trustee. In the appendix of the book is published, for the first time translated into Italian, Fundamental Constitution of Carolina and Old England Legal Constitution.