A Letter Concerning Toleration

During the course of history there has been brilliant men who have accomplished amazing feats that help cement their names for centuries. Aristotle was a man who opened the gate to the world of science. Marco Aurelius was a man with all the traits of a phenomenal thinker and leader, and so he is regarded as the Emperor of the “Golden Era”. Leonardo da Vinci opened the door to the Renaissance and William Shakespeare treated us to the best writings and plays in the English language. Likewise, John

by God. Locke had theories when it came to religious tolerance. Locke believed that earthly judges, the state in particular, and human beings generally, cannot dependably evaluate the truth-claims of competing religious standpoints. InA Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke argues for freedom of religion, which became one of the bedrock principles which the country was founded on. The Lockean ideas are fundamental in the founding documents. In the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, it begins with a

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

century society and how his ideas affect the modern American Culture. I’m incredibly thankful because I get to talk about this man and his accomplishments like his most noted works “Two Treatises of Government”, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, and “A Letter Concerning Toleration”. Locke founded the empiricist theory of knowledge, inspired other philosophers and laid the groundwork for the American and French Revolution.

John Locke originally published this letter to an “honored sir” who was his friend Philipp van Limborch. In this letter he talks of a new relationship between religion and government. He wrote this when there was much fear that England would become Catholic, but Locke Argues that toleration is the solution to this conflict. He argues that more religious groups means less civil unrest, civil unrest results from one religious group oppressing another. (Toleration, p 1) This is truly the antithesis of

The Enlightenment was a period in the 18th century, when people were free and were more likely to speak what they thought without fear of being looked down upon as less intellectual. Science was being accepted as a more credible source during this, religion was very influential, but science was gaining ground after religion always being considered the total truth and nothing else. The Enlightenment was a great time for science it was a time when many people felt like they did not need to twist their

of Locke’s well-known works Two Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, both published in 1689, he mainly focused on social contracts, the state of nature, and how they impact man. These works subsequently earned him the title “Father of Liberalism” due to the fact that Locke believed a government’s duty is “instituted for no other end, but only to secure every man’s possession of the things of this life” (Toleration, pg. 33). These possessions, which he refers to as civil interest

While he was in Holland he made new and important friends and associated with other exiles from England. “He also wrote his first Letter on Toleration, published anonymously in Latin in 1689, and completed An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” (Rogers) Locke discussed another problem that had not before received much attention, of personal identity. “Assuming one is the same person as the person who existed last week or the

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

world at the time. He had a very liberalistic mindset and is to be considered the “Father of Liberalism.” The Bible presented a problem to Locke because, at the time, the bible had authority. In “The Second Treatise of Government and a Letter Concerning toleration”, John Locke goes up against the bible and the views it presents. In his writings, Locke misquotes