John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher, who is one
of the most influential political philosophers of the modern day and is often
called the “Father of Liberalism”. His
works would later influence Voltaire, Jean-Jacque Rousseau, and many others in
the Revolutionary War. In fact, Locke’s
writings on his liberal theories can be detected in the lines of the
Declaration of Independence! In his work
Two Treatises of Government, Locke
argued that all men are free and equal under the laws of nature, and that
people have rights to life, property, liberty, and other things as such. He believed that governments are a result of
social contact between citizens, and that because it exists by the consent of
the population, people transfer some rights to the government so that it can
better protect their lives and promote the goodness of the public. Should the government fail to do so, the
people will resist it and replace it with a different form of government. Lock was also a firm believer in the
principle of majority rule, that any law or elected official should be chosen
based on the decision of the majority of the population. He also believed that the legislative and
executive powers should be kept separate from one another, never to intervene
or coerce the actions and decisions of one another. Another point he argues is that the church
should not have any power whatsoever over members of the government, that the
church and the state should be separate.
Whatever you may think about his political philosophies, John Locke is
widely regarded as one of the most important and influential philosophers of
the modern era.
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