John Locke Research Paper

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.

One of the four philosophers that had a unique idea on how to improve society was John Locke. John Locke believed in self-government. We an infer this when he said ‘’We must consider, what state all men are naturally in,and that is a state of perfect freedom to order their action, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit within fit, within the bounds

In an attempt to understand the pivotal role of government in society, 17th century English philosopher John Locke proposed that “Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.” This is the fundamental characteristic behind the political ideology Locke is the father for, Classic Liberalism. In today’s America, Classic Liberalism is an ideology “that values the freedom of individuals — including the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and markets — as well as limited government.” With the understanding of human nature through Locke’s writings, it becomes clear that government should only be involved with protecting the individual from others, as stated by Locke himself.

The chapter five of The Broadview anthology of social and political thought: Essential readings deals with John Locke beliefs over property. The following paper summarizes his key ideas and discusses them as well as applying them to today’s society. The chapter starts with Locke referring to the Bible which stats that God gave the earth to Adam and his heirs. This insinuates that property is only reserved for the monarchy. Locke disagrees and spends the following chapter arguing that property is for humanity as a whole.

John locke‘s wanted natural law for the people, he wanted equal rights and reasoning, a lot of people looked up to his influential writings he wanted separations of power one of the most enlightened thinkers looked upon. His opinion was that the government had an obligation to protect

Being nicknamed “Father of Liberalism,” Locke’s theories have formed the structure and foundation of many important works, such as the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Locke’s theories on property, social contract and the mind are considered to be the most widely known of all theories. Locke went on to explain the principle of checks and balances to limit governmental power. Locke favored rule of law and a representative government. Locke also denounced tyranny and insisted that when the government violates individual rights, that people are legitimately able to rebel. These stated views are most fully expressed in Locke’s famous Second Treatise Concerning Civil Government, they were so radical that Locke never dared sign his name to it, although he acknowledged authorship only in his will. Doing much to inspire the libertarian ideals of the American Revolution through writing, Locke set an example which appealed to the people throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America on how to live.

In my belief, John Locke and John Amos Comenius, philosophers in the 1600’s shape the education system to what it is today. This is so because if someone views the school curriculum of this present day, they can find the contributions made to education by both of these great philosophers. Both Locke and Comenius focus on making learning easier to grasp and implementing a child- centered environment. Isn’t that what we are aiming for as teachers in this day and age?

The Classical Liberal theory rests in its very core on the foundation of equality of life and individuality of all humans. Hence, liberals perpetrate the idea of personal freedom and choice to go about one’s business as long as it doesn’t infringe or interfere with the rights of the other (Heywood, 2002). Locke was of the opinion that each individual is bestowed with certain versatile features which are distinct as must be respected. In an ideal form of government, every individual is hence free to pursue all that his individuality allows him to (Parekh, 1997). He believed that humans possess the ability to reason and cognition which

John Lock was a doctor and empiricist philosopher in the 16th century. Following in the path of other great British empiricist, Locke sought to conceptualize the way people perceive themselves, in particular in terms of what thinking is and what matter is. He accomplished this by redefining knowledge in relations to the one’s own ideas. Using the wide disparity between truth and what we call knowledge and the limit of our own ideas, Locke argues that it is not possible to know for sure that thought is unique to people and that matter was not given the ability to think by God as is within his power.

Modern philosophers with epistemological concerns tended to operate in one of two schools of thought - rationalism, and empiricism. Operating out of a strictly empirical paradigm is John Locke, with influence from the empirical science-minded Francis Bacon. Renee Descartes marks rationalism in the 17th century, followed by the likes of Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz. Empiricists and rationalists alike seek to understand the nature and acquisition of knowledge; however, the later paradigms of Immanuel Kant and David Hume concerning knowledge and causality divergence – Hume adopting the empirical skeptics’ pattern of thought and Kant adopting a hypothesis that is neither entirely skeptic nor rationalistic, but rather is self-claimed to

I as well as many others have found this reading of John Locke to be extremely difficult to read and interperate. To begin with John Locke has written some of the most influential articles of literature in his time. The book sets to spectate Locke’s views of world order as well as ownership of property, and individual’s state of freedom. I do not believe we are all born slaves, and agreed with Locke that we choose our own destiny. Locke brings up some interesting points in his book such as labor for land. Although that may have been an effective procedure of the time era, could it really work in today’s society with the desired property locations of the wealthy? Locke also is a firm believer in the state of nature and

John Locke believes our ideas originate from intuitive knowledge based on our own experiences. Locke states, “We know that we exist on immediate reflection because of the nature of consciousness, not because of any poor knowledge hidden within us” (pg. 201). In this quote, Locke explains how his ideas originate. He believes that our knowledge is based on experience of what we learn in nature rather than in a pre-existing hidden knowledge. This belief is what is usually called the “white paper or tabula rasa theory” (pg. 201).

During what is known in history as the Age of Enlighten (rejection of political and social norms), Liberalism come into being (Rawls, 2005: 2). One of the influence Liberalist philosophers is known as John Locke. Locke believed that all men by nature are equal and free. (Two Treaties of Government). Locke argues that because men transform some of their power to ensure better and more protected lives thus meaning if governments fail at doing so they should be replaced with a government that can (Aaron, 1955: 76). Thus can there be said that all governments exist by the permission of the people in order to protect the people and the rights of the people, and if they fail they should be

John Locke was one of the first philosophers out of many who protested about government not giving the people the freedom that they deserve. As we know Locke and Hobbes are great thinkers, however they had divergent belief in the way they see the human. Throughout Locke’s life, he had various sublime ideas which tells that the power of monarchy (Kings) and monarchs should be limited and they should respect the rights of their citizens. Locke’s implicitly refuted the idea that Kings rule people according to the divine right, and defended that the human being should have the natural rights. For Locke’s believes people deserve freedom, though there were rules that was implemented, it shouldn’t be strict to have an order society. An example in a class, having a terror professor will gives nervous breakdown feeling to student because of being very strict rule. Then result, some of the students will be afraid to give their opinion freely, or some might drop their subjects to this professor. So how can this professor produce a very organized and productive class if his/her students were frightened by his strict rules. Unlike having a professor who have minimize rules but got sense of humor the students will feel at ease to share their ideas and they will be courage to pursue more their studies for better future. Locke also says that if the monarchy or the government fails to resect people's natural rights the people are allowed throw away the people who are responsible for