Analysis Of John Locke And Baron De Montesquieu 's ' The Declaration Of The Independence '

John Locke liked freedom, he thought that freedom was good for the government. “...(W)e must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose [manage] of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature….” (Doc A) This states that Locke wants freedom but their comes consequences. To have this freedom men needed to create a government with a legislature and an executive. Locke’s main idea was people had rights.

John Locke was perhaps one of the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke discusses the move from a state of nature and perfect freedom to a then governed society in which authority is given to a legislative and executive power. His major ideas included liberalism and capitalism, state of nature, state of war and the desire to protect one’s property.

John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu both helped to build our constitution and we borrowed some of their ideas for how we live our lives in America. John Locke had the idea that people were born with the three natural rights: life, liberty, and property. We as an early country

The United States Constitution has a great impact on American’s life. The U.S. Constitution recognized America’s national government, fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. Out of all the philosophers, John Locke’s philosophy had the greatest impact on the decisions that were made at the Philadelphia Convention and the writing of the United States Constitution. Locke introduced the ideas of natural rights and limited government.

In the opening of the “Declaration of Independence,” Jefferson lays out several main themes that reflect Rousseau's concepts. Jefferson borrows from Rousseau's thinking on equality and freedom when writing, "We hold these truths to be

Both Thomas Jefferson and John Locke share a lot the same ideal in their writings. They both believe in the rights of people that are natural and should be given to all. The Declaration of Independence focuses on the rights of people that should be to everyone. These rights are emphasized through the belief that a government shouldn’t be allowed to violate these rights. Locke focused a lot on equality as stated here “A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another” (Locke 31). Jefferson used this as a part of his writing to inspire freedom to the American people. Jefferson and Locke believed equality to be a unalienable right of all people.

a. Jefferson states that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable.

The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was an important document that helped the colonists while their rights weren’t being respected by the government or the King. He continued by saying they didn’t take necessary laws into consideration or they abolished the laws they desperately needed. Jefferson argues that everyone should be treated equally and have the same rights, these were known as unalienable rights. In the letter, Jefferson uses logos, pathos, and ethos to further explain himself and convince the colonists to join him in declaring their independence. Jefferson begins by stating, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

John Locke was an English writer, and his writings were based on the events that took place during the Glorious Revolution in England in 1689, when the people of England overthrew King James II. John Locke was interestingly enough, brought up in a loyalist and Evangelical family. He was born to a very wealthy family, and received much prestige in Oxford for his connections to the higher ups. Locke presented his ideas of rebellion during the English civil war which took place in the mid-1600s, in favor of the revolts against the King’s rule in England at the time. John Locke graduated with a degree in medicine from Oxford University.

John Locke was born in 1632, in Wrington, England. He studied medicine at the University of Oxford, but he eventually became the great philosopher everyone remembers him as (Connolly, n.d.). In 1688, King William III, supported by the Whigs, took the throne of England from King James II in what is known as the Glorious Revolution (UK Parliament, n.d.). Locke had a strong connection with the Whigs in England, so he wrote the Second Treatise on Government as a justification for the revolution. Throughout the Second Treatise on Government, Locke claims that an individual is born with the rights to “life, liberty, and property.” He believes that it is the governments purpose to preserve these rights with laws which favor neither the rich nor poor. In addition, these laws must be designed for “the good of the people.” Lastly, “[the government] must not raise taxes on the property of the people, without the consent of the people…” (Locke, 1688)

Many of John Locke’s ideas were input into the Declaration of Independence, as his primary words “life, liberty” and instead of property, the pursuit of happiness, are the basis of the American Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Locke’s arguments concerning liberty influenced the works of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, as his Second Treatise is imitated in the Declaration of Independence. When the founding fathers adopted the resolution for the nation’s

When looking at the Declaration of Independence and the justifications which Jefferson used in order to encourage the dissolve of the ties between the United Colonies and Great Britain, it becomes apparent how much of the theories of John Locke that Jefferson used as the basis for his argument. Focusing particularly on the second paragraph of the Declaration, the arguments for the equality of each man and the formation and destruction of governments come almost directly from Locke's Second Treatise of Government. The other arguments in the Declaration of Independence deal primarily with each citizen's rights and the natural freedoms of all men, two areas that Locke also spent

Providing the 17th century world with an alternative, innovative view on philosophy, politics, economics, and education among other interrelated and important aspects of life, John Locke proved to be a person of immense impact. Born in 1632, in Wrington, England, Locke was the author of many known writings which include the Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), The Two Treaties of Government (1698), A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), and Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) (Goldie 32). Locke’s writings represent a series of topics involving the purpose of philosophy, emergence of empiricism, and the role as well as limits of governments and churches in terms of liberty and natural rights. In a time where exposure of such

In the history of humanity, great minds have always been influenced by other greater minds. One of the greatest thinkers of all time was Aristotle. His ideas and contributions influenced many modern philosophers such as Kant, Marx and Rousseau. An influence of this sort can be seen in the present days and ideas of many of these philosophers have completely changed the history. In the same way, one of the most influential philosopher and thinker of the Enlightenment era is John Locke. His contributions proved great importance to the development of epistemology and political philosophy during those times, and is regarded as the most influential thinker to contribute to the liberal theory of government. John Locke wrote many critical documents relating to the separation of powers and how people should be governed. In essence, it can be argued that the actual writer of The Declaration of Independence is actually John Locke due to his ideas of rejecting the divine rights of the King and including these ideas in Second Treatise of Government which was adapted into The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson.

John Locke was a philosopher, doctor and political theorists of the 17th century. He was one of the founders of the school of thought known as British Empiricism. Mr. Locke made foundational contributions to modern theories of limited, liberal government. He was also influential in the areas of theology, religious toleration, and educational theory.