Filmer Robert (1588–1653), English political writer who produced, most importantly, the posthumous Patriarcha (1680). It is remembered because Locke attacked it in the first of his Two Treatises of Government (1690). Filmer argued that God gave complete authority over the world to Adam, and that from him it descended to his eldest son when he became the head of the family. Thereafter only fathers directly descended from Adam could properly be rulers. Just as Adam’s rule was not derived from the consent of his family, so the king’s inherited authority is not dependent on popular consent. He rightly makes laws and imposes taxes at his own good pleasure, though like a good father he has the welfare of his subjects in view. Filmer’s patriarchalism, intended to bolster the absolute power of the king, is the classic English statement of the doctrine. See also POLITICAL PHILOSOPH.
J.B.S.