John Locke Enlightenment Ideas

John Locke, who was a 17th century philosopher, helped influence many of the ideas that formed the basis of the American revolution. The United States of America would not exist with the same level of rights, government, and the same quality of life if John Locke had not influenced the constitution and the declaration of independence. With his writings, such as the Two Treatises of Government, and A Letter Concerning Toleration, and with his philosophies on problems during his time such as slavery, the role of the government, equality of the individual, and property rights, John Locke dramatically influenced several of America’s founding fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.

In 1689, John Locke, an English philosopher, and physician wrote a book called, “The Two Treatises of Government” inspired many countries to go through a period of Enlightenment with his idea of Natural Rights. Natural Rights helped cause the French Revolution by drafting a document called, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the

John Locke’s belief that all humans were born equal and had the right to life, liberty, and property influenced the basis of The United States and France’s government. John Locke felt that the government’s power came from the people; this provided a foundation for democracy and the U.S Constitution. France fought for enlightened principles like liberty, democracy, and equality after they saw that America was successful in their revolt against their absolute monarch. John Locke along with other enlightened philosophes principles were incorporated into their government.

John Locke is uniquely considered a major political philosopher of the Enlightenment. Locke’s ideas subsequently flowed from the Glorious Revolution, thus stemming with ideas of abolishing the divine rights of kings and established man-made governments. His writings state that everyone is a creature of God, therefore all are equal and have liberties to become independent; everyone cannot stay in the state of nature, because men are impartial judges, needing a system of government to make laws in order to preserve society. His influence on constitutional based governments exist worldwide, including that of the United States.The United States switched from a Divine Rule of Kings of England to governing itself in their states. Locke's ideas are clearly echoed through the founding documents of the Declaration Of Independence and U.S Constitution. These documents set the principles for the government: to preserve the life, liberty and

John Locke was one of the most influential people in the United States and is known as the “Father of Liberalism”. Locke helped shape the United States and refined the government. Locke believed the duty of the government was to protect individuals natural rights including life, liberty, and property. If the government failed to protect these rights, citizens could overthrow government. Locke’s ideas influenced Thomas Jefferson once he started drafting the Declaration of Independence and his essays provided early models of the separation of church and state.

As John Locke once said, “Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.” This quote explains the basis of Locke’s beliefs. John Locke was born in Wrington, England on August 29, 1632. He was known as an influential political and philosophical thinker who wrote many texts such as Letter Concerning Toleration. It was during 1689 when he published that letter which justifies religious tolerance with Christians. In 1690, Locke wrote two major treatises, First Treatise of Government and Second Treatise of Government, which discusses his argument that the government’s role was to protect the people’s natural rights. He rejects the idea of an absolute government because he believes that everyone was created

John Locke was a firm believer of the people. However, his beliefs went against the idea of the divine rights of kings. Locke argued that people have rights; the right to life, liberty, and property. The claim argued by Locke was that the power is always in the hands of the people and since the power is with the people they are able to select and remove anyone who does not fulfill their wishes as a community or uphold their human rights. Natural laws and natural rights were two of Locke’s political concepts; natural law can be discovered by logic alone and applies to everyone and natural rights are privileges or claims to which a person is entitled to. Locke argued these concepts because the government was not fulfilling the natural laws or rights; while being under the divine rights of kings, the monarch was able to create laws that did not apply to everyone and that were discovered by God’s chosen one (the monarch). With that being said the monarch could take advantage of the people and allow for no freedom, without any justifications, Locke however, did not believe in unfair acts or judgements; his major interest was individual liberty. In 1689 and 1690 John Locke published his book, “Treatises of Government,” the first treatise Locke stated there was no divine right for monarchs to rule, his argument was, God did not put some men above others, therefore everyone should be considered equal and their should be no higher power. In the second Treatise Locke challenges Hobbes and puts forth a liberal interpretation of the state of nature, “Man is free and in this condition all men are equal.” Locke’s concept of the state of nature is found in his second book, “Treatises of Government,” it states, “Men living according to reason, without a common superior on earth, to judge between them, is properly the state of nature.” Locke believed that once people became free, independent, and equal they would soon work together and form a social contract, leading into a free government lead by the people. Therefore the only justifications for government comes from people’s willingness to surrender some freedom and be governed. Locke put forth a very strong political campaign, the thoughts of the people being in power and

In the 16th and 17th century the world began to expand, faraway lands were discovered and stars in the sky were seen. Along with these discoveries, came many unanswered questions. Questions about what is the universe and what is man’s role in the universe. To answer these questions, began a movement, now called the Enlightenment Era (also known as the age of reasoning) which is derived from the word enlighten meaning to give intellectual or spiritual insight (Webster Dictionary). During these years, the church was the institution that governed the people and their actions. Through enlightenment period, three elements are revolutionized: philosophy, scholars began to develop and merge theories on who man is in the universe. Followed by

John Locke was the most influential philosopher for the 17th Century whose ideas in the scope of political philosophy are still relevant today. Locke is an important figure of the early European Enlightenment, and certainly many of his ideas had a considerable influence on later major Enlightenment thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Since he was a brilliant thinker he had a broad range of interests to include epistemology, political philosophy and religious tolerance. Epistemology is a study of the knowledge of nature and the grounds of knowledge. Locke, who followed the teachings of Francis Bacon, was an empiricist. In “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” Locke defends empiricism which concerns itself

I thought John Locke had the deepest and most true statement/idea because it made common sense, people could relate to it, and it brought up new things about our lives that I never thought about. A major reason I thought Locke’s ideas were true was because it made the most sense. The experiences we go through I believe really do help make us the people we are. Another reason I agree with his ideas is because I can relate to what he is portraying. The choices we choose and things we go through can change us forever. For example, you experience a war and now you might think war is never the answer to our problems. However, I am not sure our minds start as completely blank, but with certain broad guidelines that still give us the choice

When Locke wrote his Two Treaties of Government he was under the employment or had the Earl of Shaftesbury which ended up giving the philosophical ammo to the founding fathers to give the shaft to England after we won the Revolutionary War. Locke disagreed with and argued that a legitimate king would have their sovereign powers and duties endowed to them by God. Locke also introduced three important ideas, State of Nature, reciprocal equality for individual rights balanced with individual freedom duties which I will call responsibilities and third the idea that these laws arise from and are formed or shaped to us by the laws of nature.

John Locke was a British philosopher who lived from 1632 to 1704. He is one of the most important empiricist. Empiricists derive their own knowledge from the sense. In his main work, the Essay Concerning Human Understandings, he asks two questions; where we got our ideas from? and whether we can rely on our senses? Locke believed everything came from our senses and before we had any ideas our mind was a tabula rasa. As infants we develop simple ideas of sense, this stimulates reflection which is thinking, reasoning, believing, and doubting. “Knowledge that can be traced back to simple sensation is therefore false knowledge and must consequently be rejected” (Gaarder 260). We perceive two qualities, the primary one such as weigh, motion, size, number, etc. and the secondary, such as hot or cold, color, and taste. The secondary qualities is what varies among people and animals but the primary are constant for all. Locke also had other beliefs such as in natural rights which had a great impact on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. “He believed that the idea of God was born of human reason” (Gaarder 262). He spoke out for gender equality as well. Locke also was the first to advocate for division of powers which has an obvious effect on the United States government.

When examining John Locke, the legal philosopher’s theory, he believes “that men have produced a society with unequal distribution of wealth simply by putting a value on gold and silver, by using money as a means of exchange” (Powell, 1996). Locke does not openly say that this is right or even fair, but merely that this arrangement is the ordinary result of men setting a significance on gold and silver and incidentally approving in the use of money. Locke goes on to say in his own words that, “This partage of things in an inequality of private possessions, men have made practicable out of the bounds of society, and without compact, only by putting a value on gold and silver” (Uzgalis, 2001). John Locke's theory seems to still to this day persuading the industrial cultures around the world by pursuing reasons in the name of freedom not only to trade but also

The Constitution is the fundamental laws by which state or nation is organized and governed. The constitution assigns the power, duties of government and defines the connection between people and government. In (1756-1763) the British and the Americans fought against the French and the Native Americans to get control of the North America which charged the British with huge amount of war debt. However, the British wanted America to pay the half of that debt. American Government, Constitution, Article of Confederation became strong after ruling under the British. The John Locke Theories were very important for the Americans who wrote the Declaration of Independence. He wanted people to have natural rights which were the life, liberty and

In this paper, I want to examine how philosophers, especially John Locke from his book Essay Concerning Human Understanding, understand human knowledge and ideas. We have all had experience of being unsure or mistaken about something: you think it 's Wednesday when it is actually Thursday; you wonder whether he was wearing a red shirt or yellow yesterday. Sceptics argue that it is impossible to be certain about anything, arguing that if we can be deceived about such simple things, who can say that we are not mistaken more often than we think? On the other side of the discussion, various groups of philosophers have tried to prove that certainty is possible. Questions have been raised with regard to what is knowledge and can it be defined? What might have made us doubt our knowledge? Is it possible to justify our knowledge with experience?