The Influence of John Locke

The Influence of John Locke

John Locke was someone more than just an ordinary man. He was the son of a

country attorney and born on August 29, 1632. He grew up during the civil war and later

entered the Church of Christ, Oxford, where he remained as a student and teacher for

many years. (Rivitch 23) With a wide variety of political and religious views, he

expressed most of his personnel views on education and social and political

philosophies. Once he noted the five lasting pleasures throughout his career were health,

good news, knowledge, doing good, and eternal paradise. Many of his views both

political and religious were found to be famous throughout history in many countries.

Locke was one of the first people that thought religion and state should be separated.

(Jenkins 123) Locke considered the formation of government from man's own nature,

whether or not government is formed because man is a social animal or if government is

formed to preserve society. According to Locke, man must not think that all government

in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no

other rules but that of beasts. Locke also felt that to understand political power right, and

derive it from its origin. We must also consider what state all men are naturally in, and

that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions

and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature.

Locke later published anonymously his Two Treaties of Government, and the essay

Concerning Human Understanding. These writings were immediately successful and

they both exerted a vast of influence. Between the both of these works, they made the

dominant view of English thought through the greater part of the eighteenth century.

J. Mathis 3

(Jenkins 56)

John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1690) was a well-known and respected

document. In the paper, he attacked the theory of diving right of kings and the nature of

the state as conceived by the English philosopher and political theorist Thomas Hobbes.

He did not believe that a king should become king because "God told him to be", but

rather, because he was qualified for the position, and also because the people felt he

should be there. Locke argued that sovereignty did not reside in the state, but with the

people, and that the state is supreme, but only if it is bound by civil and what Locke

referred to a "natural" law. (Squadrito 43) Many of these thoughts were later embodied

in the constitution. Some of these ideas, such as those relating to natural rights, property

rights, the duty of the government to protect these rights and the rule of the majority are

used in many places to this day. He also believed that man by his nature had certain

inalienable rights and duties. (Rivitch12) These rights included life, liberty, and

ownership of property. By liberty, Locke meant political equality. The task and duty of

the government of any state was to protect mans rights. Locke believes that the

government should protect human rights better than individuals could on there own, and

if it didn't adequately protect the rights of the citizens, then they had the right to find

other rulers. (Squadrito 34)

Locke also said that the government should be split up. There should be three

branches, the legislative, executive, and the judicial. He said that revolution was not only

a right but often an obligation, and he advocated a system of checks and balances in the

government from these three branches. He said that the legislative should be the most

J. Mathis 4

powerful branch, but not powerful enough to do damage to the government and state.

(Eisenach 11) The executive branch would have certain powers over the legislative and

the judicial over the other branches. His reasoning for this was to be sure that no certain

group of people would be able to take over the government, and to avoid a king, which is

only one point of view leading a country. Having the people run the government meant

diversity, and compromise to be sure that the country and the people are getting fair laws

and rights.

It was John Locke that brought the colonies to realize that they were being

ruled unfair. It was Locke's Two Treatises of Government that strongly influenced

Thomas Jefferson in writing the Declaration of Independence and the Colonies fighting

for their freedom. They were not only fighting for their political freedom, but also there

religious freedom. Locke, in the Two Treatises of Government stated that a people as a

whole should have the freedom to choose their religion. He also believed that there

should be no connection between the state and the church, and neither could make laws

concerning the other.

John Locke's influence of our forefathers has been profound and, with his

application of experimental analysis to ethics, politics, and religion, he remains one of

the most important and controversial philosophers of all time. His ideas and writings

lived way beyond his time, and have proven to be the reason the colonies broke away

from there mother country and learned to expect certain rights from their government. Maybe if it wasn't for John Locke our government might not exist for his influential

thinking. John Locke was and still is a very important part of our history. J. Mathis 5

Biography

Squadrito, Kathleen John Locke, Twayne Publishers © 1979 Jenkins, John Understanding Locke, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press © 1983

Eisenach, Eldon Two Worlds of Liberalism, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press © 1981

Rivitch, Daine and Thernstorm, Abigail the Democracy reader, New York, Harpercollins publishers © 1992 pg 31-39

Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 97 , © 1993-1996