John Locke Influence

From Aristotle to John Locke to Thomas Jefferson, the ideas of great philosophers influenced the foundations of the United States. When Jefferson began writing the Declaration of Independence, he wanted to make this new country based on the basic fundamentals. He wanted to base the country on what was considered the natural laws. Jefferson had many philosophical minds to ponder when writing the document, such as Aristotle and most importantly John Locke.

Liberalism, in general, was an ideological movement that emerged out of the ideas of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century. It embraced the ideas of individualism which were established in the Renaissance and Reformation era. The Renaissance period sparked a belief in the importance of the individual in society. It helped promote the beliefs of classical liberalism which gradually formed into the liberal ideology of the 19th century. Individuals that were waiting to get their individual rights and freedoms were allowed to finally gain liberty and power through this period of time. Classical liberalism developed

After years of being subjected to Britain’s constant demands and constricting rules, America decided to pursue the future government and society they desired. They sent a letter to King John III, this letter contained a list of offenses the king had committed, and it also rallied up the colonists to fight for their freedom. This letter, called the Declaration of Independence, was ratified on July 4th, 1776. With the help of five colonists Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to voice the people’s concerns. This letter ended up impacting how the government developed. The American government was significantly influenced by the Declaration of Independence, which established freedom and more rights for the people, and equality

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.

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.

The Enlightenment was a period of learning and expanding. It was a shift in society and how people thought. John Locke and his ideas contributed in a major way towards the Enlightenment. Locke had three main philosophies, religious tolerance, all men are born a blank slate, and that the divine right to rule is incorrect. His influence on society helped shape the transition of religion to reason & questioning. Locke left a very powerful and positive impact on England during the seventeenth century.

The enlightenment era arose in the modern cultural ideology of the 18th century, as ideas among philosophers had a widespread effect among the society. The age of enlightenment, in western society, projected the rejection of traditional Christianity, western philosophy, intellectual advances, scientific, and cultural life, government legitimacy and authority. Upon the enlightenment period multiple philosophers emerged, the individuals arose to leading figures using reason to understand all aspects of human life. The motivations for the enlightenment came primarily from the Englishmen, John Locke. John Locke was a philosophical influence in both political theory and theoretical philosophy, which was embraced among the era of 1789-1914 and

The enlightenment was a European movement during the 17th and 18th centuries. The enlightenment wasn’t a physical movement; however, it was an intellectual movement. Most of the ideas centered around authority and legitimacy. Later these ideas may have transformed into liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The enlightenment was valued greatly, considering that it showed people how to think scientifically, and it also let the world understand different scientific processes. John Locke influenced Thomas Jefferson with these enlightenment writings by helping him write the Declaration of Independence because of Locke showing Jefferson that people were born with natural rights.

The political philosopher, John Locke is known best for his ideas that influenced Thomas Jefferson while writing the Declaration of Independence. Locke’s views on government were very respected by our founding fathers, even though they were very different from the government styles of his time.

John Locke’s influence on the United States could not be made more evident than the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Residing in our country’s declaration of independence is the original stamp of John Locke’s philosophy, now we will consider if loyalties to this philosophy have similarly influenced the United States constitution. In an attempt to do this I will look at arguments made by Publius, an advocate for the constitution, and an antagonist named the Farmer. This I hope will help us contextualize the arguments surrounding the constitution during the time of its ratification. John Locke in his Second Treatise on government outlined many principles for good government, and I would like to focus on three.

During the time period prior to the scientific revolution, there were two men that had significant achievements to help start the reign of the scientific revolution. Joseph Banks was an English botanist who traveled with James Cook’s on his first voyage in the Pacific where he categorized different species of plants and brought them back to England to initiate the Royal Botanic Gardens. John Locke, along with Banks, also made significant advancements to help establish Europe as a stronger nation. Locke was a philosopher who worked primarily with the ideas of using reason to deal with politics, like Bacon did. Locke made points like having a stable social order is based on communication between rulers and people, as well as encouraged the protection

John Locke presents ideas within “Toleration and Government” which form a liberal ideology. The aim of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses within John Locke’s ideology. Paragraph I will discuss the main concepts in the text. Paragraph II will identify the ideology’s explanation of political phenomena, it’s criteria and standards of explanation, and it’s cultural and social orientation. Paragraph III exemplifies elements which I found strong within Locke's work.

Classical liberalism is the transition from focusing on government to focusing on the rights of individuals. This transition came about during the time of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment period was when man started to have more faith in his own reasoning. People began to look for evidence on their beliefs themselves and to find proof on these beliefs, so that they could come up with their own opinions on things. One way that they did this was by going back and rereading Roman and Greek texts and retranslating these texts. This new way of thinking also caused the Protestant Reformation to occur. Some of the most influential Enlightenment writers were John Locke, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and the people of France’s National Constituent Assembly.

Indeed, Locke’s approach on human knowledge as an external obtained asset is closely linked to his view on ethics. According to Locke, ethics is learned by example coming from the external environment. Certainly, such examples can derive from teachers or other influential individuals who have had the chance to experience life on a broader extent. Due to such transcending thinking, Locke was perceived as a “‘culturally engaged’ philosopher responding to the cultural crises of the Modern Europe, in which a fracture of tradition and warfare had created a need to define the nature and scope of knowledge” (Marshall 468). His contribution was important because it provided people at that time with an alternative system of ethics that took into account reason and was not solely based on what others held ethical and/or unethical. It is this notion of reason, the factor

“The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.” - John Locke.1 In the early decades of seventeenth century England, an era of rebellion, civil war and tyranny, there was an outpour of writers who challenged views on government, religion and science.2 Among these influential writers, political philosopher John Locke came forth, expressing his theories and ideologies surrounding natural law and human freedom. With a background in medicine, he developed an interest in empiricism, and by method of observation he asserted his theories on human understanding and ability to reason.3 He is considered as a founder of a school of thought named British Empiricism, due to his diverse empirical theories on how the world is perceived. His views were written in his most famous work, An Essay Concerning Human