This paper attempts to reconstruct John Locke’s concept of citizenship from a new angle. Although founded on natural law theory rather than humanist or republican discourse, Locke supports a type of civic consciousness associated with the virtue of industry. Locke employs the idea of industry in a dual sense, namely, as the perfection of personality through mental striving towards both speculative and moral knowledge, as well as the improvement of human condition in a socio-economic sense. From Locke’s perspective, the concept of industry as it is referenced in the latter point represents one’s commercial contribution to the society to which he or she belongs, and is a contribution that can be performed by anyone, regardless of social status. This reveals Locke’s break with the classical concept of citizenship, which evoked conflicting ideas on civic virtue among humanist and republican writers in the early modern period. Meanwhile, Locke enabled a reevaluation of civic activeness, which had been reduced to passive subjection by Thomas Hobbes.
