John Locke (1632-1704)

John Locke was born on August 29th, 1632 in England and lived to became one of the most influential people in
England and, perhaps, one of the most influential people of the 17th century. Before his death on October 28th, 1704
he would earn the title as the Father of liberal philosophy. His ideas would also be used as a keystone for the
revolution of the North American colonies from England.

Natural Rights
Locke wrote and developed the philosophy that there was no legitimate government under the divine right of
kings theory. TheDivine Right of Kings theory, as it was called, asserted that God chose some people to rule on earth in
his will. Therefore, whatever the monarch decided was the will of God. When you criticized the ruler, you were in effect
challenging God. This was a very powerful philosophy for the existing ruler. But, Locke did not believe in that and wrote
his theory to challenge it.
Perhaps the part of Locke's writing which most influenced the founding fathers of the United States Constitution was
the idea that the power to govern was obtained from the permission of the people.
He thought that the purpose of government was to protect the natural rights of its citizens. He said that natural rights
were life, liberty and property, and that all people automatically earned these simply by being born. When a
government did not protect those rights, the citizen had the right and maybe even the obligation of overthrowing the
government.
If these ideas seem familiar to you, it is because they were incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by
Thomas Jefferson. Once they took root in North America, the philosophy was adopted in other places as justification for
revolution.

English philosopher whose works lie at the foundation of modern

philosophical empiricism and political liberalism. He was an inspirer of both the
European Enlightenmentand the Constitution of the United States. His philosophical thinking was
close to that of the founders of modern science, especially Robert Boyle, SirIsaac Newton,
and other members of the Royal Society. His political thoughtwas grounded in the notion of
a social contract between citizens and in the importance of toleration, especially in matters
of religion. Much of what he advocated in the realm of politics was accepted in England
after the Glorious Revolution of 168889 and in the United States after the countrys
declaration of independence in 1776.

Theory of idea
A dominant theme of the Essay is the question with which the original discussion in
Exeter House began: What is the capacity of the human mindfor understanding
and knowledge? In his prefatory chapter, Locke explains that the Essay is not offered as
a contribution to knowledge itself but as a means of clearing away some of the
intellectual rubbish that stands in the way of knowledge. He had in mind not only the
medieval Scholastics and their followers but also some of his older contemporaries. The
Scholasticsthose who took Aristotle and his commentators to be the source of all
philosophical knowledge and who still dominated teaching in universities throughout
Europewere guilty of introducing technical terms into philosophy (such as substantial
form, vegetative soul, abhorrence of a vacuum, and intentional species) that upon
examination had no clear senseor, more often, no sense at all. Locke saw the
Scholastics as an enemy that had to be defeated before his own account
of knowledge could be widely accepted, something about which he was entirely right.
Locke begins the Essay by repudiating the view that certain kinds of knowledgeknowledge of the existence of God, of
certain moral truths, or of the laws of logic or mathematicsare innate, imprinted on the human mind at its creation.
(The doctrine of innate ideas, which was widely held to justify religious and moral claims, had its origins in the
philosophy of Plato[428/427348/347BCE], who was still a powerful force in 17th-century English philosophy.) Locke
argues to the contrary that an idea cannot be said to be in the mind until one is conscious of it. But human infants have
no conception of God or of moral, logical, or mathematical truths, and to suppose that they do, despite obvious evidence
to the contrary, is merely an unwarranted assumption to save a position. Furthermore, travelers to distant lands have
reported encounters with people who have no conception of God and who think it morally justified to eat their enemies.
Such diversity of religious and moral opinion cannot not be explained by the doctrine of innate ideas but can be
explained, Locke held, on his own account of the origins of ideas.

Theories of religious tolerance

Locke, writing his Letters Concerning Toleration (168992) in the aftermath of the European wars of religion,
formulated a classic reasoning for religious tolerance. Three arguments are central: (1) Earthly judges, the
state in particular, and human beings generally, cannot dependably evaluate the truth-claims of competing
religious standpoints; (2) Even if they could, enforcing a single "true religion" would not have the desired
effect, because belief cannot be compelled by violence; (3) Coercing religious uniformity would lead to more
social disorder than allowing diversity.
With regard to his position on religious tolerance, Locke was influenced by Baptist theologians like John
Smyth and Thomas Helwys, who had published tracts demanding freedom of conscience in the early 17th
century.[23][24][25] Baptist theologian Roger Williams founded the colony Rhode Island in 1636, where he
combined a democratic constitution with unlimited religious freedom. His tract The Bloody Tenent of
Persecution for Cause of Conscience (1644), which was widely read in the mother country, was a passionate
plea for absolute religious freedom and the total separation of church and state. ] Freedom of conscience had
had high priority on the theological, philosophical and political agenda, since Martin Luther refused to recant
his beliefs before the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Worms in 1521, unless he would be proved false by
the Bible