John Locke Research Paper

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.

mine. He believes that war should not be used unless it’s the last possible option we

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 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 Second Treatise of Government provides Locke's theorizes the individual rights and involvement with the government; he categorizes them in two areas -- natural rights theory and social contract. 1.Natural state; rights which human beings are to have before government comes into being. 2.Social contact; when conditions in natural state are unsatisfactory, and there's need to develop society into functioning of central government.

The foundations of law have been set in the ideas of natural laws that are given to us. There are many different theories on how our laws of nature have brought us to develop the social contracts and government of today’s society. John Locke and Saint Thomas Aquinas’s views of how social contracts are developed from natural and eternal laws are both well seated in the belief of God given rights, but differ in the politics of the governments.

With the exception of Native Americans, there is no race of people that originated in America. Yet today, we all come together under the colors of red, white and blue, sing the National Anthem and call ourselves "Americans". Despite our differences in religion, norms, values, national origins, our pasts, and our creeds, we all combine under one common denominator. Alain Locke addresses this issue of cultural pluralism in his article, "Who and What is `Negro'?" In this article, Locke states that, "There is, in brief, no `The Negro'. " By this, he means that blacks are not a uniform and unchanging body of people. He emphasizes that we, as Americans, need to mentally mature to a point where we do not view

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

Today is January 1st, today was probably the worst day of my life, it has been a year since my last entry, as usual, I have been to many battles with many different horses, I have few horses of my own left, and I will soon have to purchase them from others, or else I will have to join the infantry. Today I was at home, my wife was tending to my wounds, I had been shot in the leg in my last battle, and I am lucky to be breathing right now. It took a great deal of money to get the medicine for my leg, so that it would not get infected, but it was a good thing I had my slaves working on my plantation earning me more money, but that is exactly why January 1st, was the worst day of my life. The Emancipation Proclamation had been signed, which not only stated that all slaves are free, but that they may join in the fight against the Confederacy, and all the slaves who are now free will

“Second Treatise on Government” excerpt by John Locke In an excerpt from John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government”, Locke establishes that every man has fundamental rights. Furthermore, the rights to life, liberty, possessions, and health are ones that should be protected by a governing body. To Locke, the ideal form of government would be a monarchy. However, John Locke was an Englishman in 1690, and at the time Great Britain was ruled by a Parliament. Therefore making Locke’s beliefs an act of treason, forcing him to flee to France.

John Locke was born on August 29, 1632, into a middle class family during late Renaissance England. Locke started his studies at Christ Church in Oxford. He then went into medical studies and received a medical license, which he practiced under Anthony Cooper. They became friends, and when Cooper became Earl of Shaftesbury, Locke was able to hold minor government jobs and became involved in politics. Shaftesbury steered Locke towards the views of a government whose law was fair to all, and all were under the law.

Reason is not flexible because it is God's law and it is set in stone.

There are two sides of the Liberal Theory of Justice which are represented by John Locke and John Rawls – Locke being on the liberal side while Rawls is more on the equalitarian side. Each agrees that man is an individual with rights given to him because of his mere existence. Even though Rawls, who came later, does build on Locke and their views are quite similar, they still have some disagreements on what these rights mean and how they should be handled.

I loved learning about Locke and his philosophy’s because he mainly focused on the child’s character. He focused on who the child was becoming as a person rather than focusing on what the child was doing. Locke’s educational philosophy had six main points, first of them being Self-Control. He taught about how we need to focus on the child’s physical health, and how to be firm with them if we want them to acquire self -discipline (Crane pg 9). The second point is, Best Rewards and Punishments which deals with how we reinforce our children’s behavior. We need to praise them for good behavior, but never for behavior that is “unreasonable or self-indulgent” (Crane pg 9). The third point is Small Steps, we need to help them get over their fears. Locke wanted to have children grow up to be brave and that can’t happen if we don’t help them overcome their fears. We can’t rush them into anything though, we need to take small steps and just work with them. The fourth point was Rules, which had two rules that we should follow. The first rule is to be a good role model because children learn from example. The second rule is instead of issuing commands, practice the desired behavior that you want to see with the children (Crane pg 10). The fifth point is the Children’s Special Characteristics which mostly deals with him saying that, “children have their own cognitive capacities that set limits on what we can teach them” (Crane pg 10). The last point is Academic Instruction which mainly

John Locke (1632-1704) was the first of the classical British empiricists. (Empiricists believed that all knowledge derives from experience. These philosophers were hostile to rationalistic metaphysics, particularly to its unbridled use of speculation, its grandiose claims, and its epistemology grounded in innate ideas) If Locke could account of all human knowledge without making reference to innate ideas, then his theory would be simpler, hence better, than that of Descartes. He wrote, “Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas: How comes it to be furnished? To his I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE.” (Donald Palmer, p.165)