...power. Therefore, throughout the Declaration of Independence the philosopher John Locke influenced and shaped important aspects with his principles of natural rights which even encompasses limited government and popular sovereignty. Natural rights are exactly what they say. Rights that an individual is immediately born with and will stay with yourself until you die. The three vague terms found in lines one and two of the declaration of rights. "Endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the...
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...Locke believes that one’s personal identity is made up from their conscious memories. His view is that a person can only be the same person as they were in the past if they can expand their consciousness back to their previous actions and memories. So, everything that a person can remember from their past are what makes up their personal identity. An example that Locke gives of the memory theory is the idea of body switching. He explains that if two people switched bodies, then the two individuals would still be themselves, because they still have their memories, which Locke believes that is what makes up someone’s personal identity. He uses the example of a prince entering the body of a cobbler. He states that the person would still be the same as the prince and not the cobbler, because he still has his memories and experiences from being a prince. Another example that supports the memory theory is amnesia. When a person suffers from irreversible amnesia, many people take it almost as if that person is dying. Although, the individual is still alive and still a person, they do not have the memories and experiences that make up their personal identity. Even though that person is still themselves and is still in their own body, what gave them their personality and made them who they are is gone....
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...1. An influential person that influenced the constitution would be John Locke. In chapter one it states that Locke believed that at one time humans had little to no competition for resources but as the population grew and resources diminished it became harder for resources to go around for everyone this would usually cause disputes and conflicts between the people. The need for a neutral arbiter was needed to settle disputes peacefully the arbiter is known as the Government. During his Second Treatise of Government he identifies the basis of a legitimate government. Locke believed that the job of the government was to protect the natural rights of people which included life, liberty, and property and if the government did not follow through on protecting these rights the citizens could over throw that government. The authors of the Declaration of Independence rely heavily on Locke’s ideas which helped them write the...
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...John Locke made the most influence on the world compared to Machiavelli. Machiavelli and John Locke both had about the same effect on the world even though they were different ideas. Niccolo Machiavelli had amazing ideas and taking power and politics. Even though Niccolo wrote his book in the 14th century his ideas are used all the time in todays day. Many rulers and politicians use his book as a guide on how to rule. Niccolo wrote the prince because he wanted to show people how ruling shouldn’t be. John Locke did the “Two Treatises of Civil Government”, an essay concerning human understanding, and “The Social Contract.” The “Two Treatises of Civil Government” are essays that showed the ideas of personal government, and democratic nations. The essays laid out a basic outline for our governments today. An essay concerning human understanding laid out a lot of ideas about the country. It talked about how “every man is his equal.”(Locke) “The Social Contract” talked about have an equal relationship between government and the people....
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...Thomas Jefferson was greatly influenced by John Locke and Thomas Hobbes while writing the Declaration of Independence. Their philosophies were that if the people gave the government power, the government would protect society from the chaos due to the disregard of laws. Slavery was occurring across the thirteen colonies during the time the Declaration was being drafted, but it was not addressed in the statement. The Declaration has three parts to it. The first part showed beliefs about government, the second part included a list of King George’s wrong doings to show how he had violated the people’s rights, and the last part was Congress’s actual statement of independence from Great Britain. Slavery was occurring across the thirteen colonies...
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...John Locke is a famous British philosopher of the 17th century. He was born in August 29, 1632 in the small town of Wrington, he later passed away on October 28, 1704. He received his early education at Westminster School and then at Christ Church, Oxford (a college). Much like Hobbes that came before him, he found little use for the Aristotelian philosophy taught. Having great success as a student, he later went on to hold several teaching roles the college. Often heralded as one of the founder of the Empiricism and a major contributor to many of the contemporary theories about governments, he was influenced greatly by earlier philosophers like Rene Descartes, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon. A larger chunk of his work was completed whilst living at Lord Ashley’s residence, Exeter house. While living there he continued to partake in philosophical discussions and it is from these discussions that he claims the motivation for writing his most famous piece, completed while in exile, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” stems from. He states that:...
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...| John Locke | The father of modern liberalism | | Cole Davis | 5/20/2012 | | Liberalism, a political ideology based on the belief that constant progress is achievable, the human race is composed of intrinsically good beings, and that these intrinsically good beings are and should be autonomous in nature, is an idea that made an incredible resurgence during the English enlightenment. As the belief of Liberalism gained popularity with the public it also developed an enormous following among European philosophers. John Locke, the individual responsible for the idea of natural rights as well as the social compact, helped mold this idea of Liberalism into its own unique philosophical tradition. Because of these great contributions, John Locke is considered as father of modern liberalism. Born August 29, 1632 at Wrington in Somerset, John Locke was the son of a lawyer and the oldest child of his Puritan household (Locke, Berkeley, Hume). While Locke was a child, his father closely monitored and guided his education. An incredibly educated individual, Locke first received a formal education at Westminster School eventually graduating to Christ Church, Oxford (Collinson). After receiving his bachelors of arts in 1656, Locke stayed at Oxford to earn his master’s degree. Locke became the censor of moral philosophy in 1664 and in 1675 when the Earl of Shaftesbury fell from power; Locke exiled himself to France to restore his health (Locke, Berkeley, Hume). After four...
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...#1 John Locke John Locke was 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 and remained there as a student and teacher for many years. With a wide variety of political and religious views, John expressed most of his personnel views on education, social, political and philosophies. Many of John’s views both political and religious were found to be famous though-out history in many countries. Locke was one of the first people who thought religion and state should be separated. Locke published anonymously the “Two Treaties of Government” and an essay “Concerning Human Understanding.” These writings were immediately successful and both influenced Rousseau and Voltaire along with many other scholars. John Locke’s Two Treatise of Government is a well-known and respected document. In the paper, John attacked the theory of the divine right of kings and maintained that all men are free and equal in the state of nature to posses certain rights. He did not believe that a king should become king because “God told him to,” but rather he was qualified for the position and 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 civil and “natural” law binds it. The task and duty of the government of any state was to protect mans rights. Locke believed...
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...works today** John Locke’s Influence on American Democracy John Locke (1632–1704) was a British philosopher, Oxford academic, and political activist. Locke is referred to by many American political philosophers as one of the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. His ideologies and beliefs in regards to politics, religion, and the relationship between a country’s citizens and its government are heavily referenced within some of the United States’ most important documents. Locke’s association with Anthony Ashley Cooper led him to become a successful government official, an economic and political writer, an opposition political activist, and finally a revolutionary whose cause ultimately prevailed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (Woolhouse, 2007). John Locke’s many writings and speeches on the importance of the freedom of man from a totalitarian government has influenced American politics dating back to the early days of the Continental Congress and the drafting of the United States Declaration of Independence. Perhaps the most central concept in Locke's political philosophy that influenced American political thought is his theory of natural law and natural rights. Among Locke's political works, he is most famous for the Two Treatise of Government in which he argues that sovereignty resides in the people and explains that man has fundamental natural rights as a human that should not be regulated by an omnipresent government (1689). Locke used the claim...
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...These three enlightenment thinkers were some of the most important influences of the Founding Fathers and their thinking. John Locke influenced the Declaration of Independence, Montesquieu influenced the U.S. Constitution, and Thomas Hobbes influenced both. They influenced the Founding Fathers’ creation of our American Government. John Locke was a very popular Enlightenment thinker. He said that people form government to protect their natural rights. Natural rights are rights that everyone should have. These natural rights include life, liberty, and the right to own property. "According to Locke, people have the right to revolt against it if it has ceased to uphold it's end of the bargain." (classroom.synonym.com) This is what John Locke thought...
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...respond to the following: John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government were written to defend armed resistance to the English king by English subjects in the years preceding the Whig revolution, the Glorious Revolution of 1689 (as it’s called). Involved in plots, Locke fled from England to Holland in 1683 and stayed there until 1689. The First Treatise is an attack on the theory of absolute monarchy defended by Sir Robert Filmer. The Filmer theory traces the rights of the monarch to the establishment of monarchical power in Adam (the first man of the Bible) by God. This absolute authority to rule then gets passed along down to the present king of England. So the king is answerable only to God and the subjects are obligated to obey the king’s commands come what may, says Filmer. * Explain what, according to Locke, gives a person their right to property. As stated in the textbook, " everyman has a property in his own Person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labor of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labor with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state nature placed it in, it hath by this labor something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other men" (p.209, Halbert and Ingulli, 2009). Labor, for Locke, includes picking up acorns...
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...John Locke's contributions in Philosophy and political views are followed and practiced even to this day. Locke’s ideas influenced religion, economics, political change, theories of knowledge and the human understanding that led to governmental and social improvements. John Locke believed in political reform. John Locke is one of the most influential authors and political philosophers in history. His ideas and views have influenced such momentous commodity such as the American constitution. Many of Locke’s ideas were used in the creation of the United States Constitution. John Locke was a British philosopher and medical researcher. Locke was born to Agnes Keene and John Locke on August 29, 1632, in Somerset, England. His father was a Puritan lawyer, who served as a Captain during the English civil war. Locke’s schooling began at Westminster School in 1647. He earned the title of King’s Scholar, which prepared him for the next phase of his education at the Christ Church in Oxford in 1652. He studied literature, physical science, medicine, politics, and natural philosophy. In 1656 he continued for his Master of Arts degree. In 1665 at Oxford, Locke encountered Lord Ashley, a notable statesman looking for medical treatment. After a friendship formed, Ashley invited Locke to join him in London as his personal physician. Locke agreed and left for London in 1667, where he lived for the next eight years. This was the beginning of Locke’s deep political interests, which was...
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...Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson strengthened his beliefs through personal studies and deep examination of European history. Many history books will tell that the contributing factors that formed Thomas Jefferson’s ideas of the identity of America were linked to events such as the Reformation, the Renaissance, and the British Country party. However, one man’s works continually surfaced in Jefferson’s political and even private writings. John Locke, a British Enlightenment philosopher, was repeatedly referenced in documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Notes on the State of Virginia, and the Summary View of the Rights of British America. Jefferson repeatedly used Locke’s concepts as would even sometimes use the exact same phrases. This would make Thomas Jefferson, the first ever American to plagiarize! The irony in this is that America was just now forming its own personality, one separate from Britain, but the concepts and beliefs that helped form that identity were partly coming from a long dead British man. John Locke’s influence over Thomas Jefferson’s outlook on forming a government is undeniable...
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...He is known as the father of liberal philosophy. John Locke, one of the most well known philosophers and thinkers from the Renaissance and Enlightenment. He attended some of the most prestigious schools to achieve his level of study in philosophy. He has made many contributions to the world. Including, but not limited to, contributions to governmental and political ideas. John Locke was born on August 29th 1632. He went to Westminster school when he was about 15 years old. Locke got a privileged education because of his father’s relations with the English government and after attending Westminster school he got a district honor which allowed him to attend the Christ Church at University of Oxford where he studied logic, metaphysics, and classical...
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...“Whatever we learn, according to empiricists, we learn through perception” (“Empiricism”- Theory). This quote is a basic definition of what empiricists believe in and how they perceive the world through their own minds. The true definition of empiricism is that “all concepts originate in experience...or applicable to things that can be experienced, or that all rationally acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience” (“Empiricism”- Britannica). Although empiricism isn’t a well-known philosophy as of today, it flourished during the Renaissance and during British colonization in the Americas. Empiricism is a very interesting philosophy which has even helped to form some major changing points within the world. The term Empiricism comes from empeiria, an ancient Greek word which means experience. Empiricists learn most of their knowledge from experience, sensory being one of the most common ways for them to learn. They usually do experiments to help answer their theories, and let the world itself test their hypotheses, rather than it be only relied on reasoning. Empiricism has always been heavily contrasted with Rationalism, which is gaining knowledge through reasoning. Empiricism has been known to be influenced by Aristotle’s idea of a tabula rasa, which means “clean slate” or “blank tablet”. This idea was further developed by philosophers such as Avicenna, who explained that the tabula rasa is something that is formed through education...
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