Olivia King
John Locke was born in 1632 in Wrighton, Somerset. He was one of the most famous philosophers of the 17th century. Locke has been called the “intellectual father of our country” by the John Locke Foundation. He attended Christ Church, one of Oxford’s most prestigious schools, where he was educated in philosophy and medicine. After graduating, he returned to get a Master of Arts and eventually took on tutorial work at the school. Locke had many important theories, some of them regarding the separation of church and state, religious freedom, and liberty. One of his main beliefs was in Natural Law, which mean that man had natural rights; they weren’t given to him by a ruler. Man got these rights just for being human. He went on to write many famous pieces of literature, one of them called “Two Treatises of Government.” In this literature, he talked about his ideas on natural rights and the social contracts. These writings turned England upside down and were helped give rise to the American and French revolutions. Once these revolutions happened, people started to turn on Locke. He was eventually exiled to Holland, and wrote “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” It ended up being four books long and examined the human knowledge and how it worked. He eventually returned to England, and his writings made a lasting impact. John Locke was an extremely successful and influential philosopher, his works are still highly revered and respected today. Because of all this, John Locke is one of the most important philosophers of all time.
Trevor Hutchens #10
ReplyDeleteJohn Locke
John Locke was born on August 29, 1632 in Wrington, Somerset, England. Locke grew up in a professional and Puritan family, as his father was a lawyer for the Justices of the Peace in Chew Magna. Fifteen years later, Locke went to the highly sought after Westminster School in London. Following his graduation from the school, he was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford, which began his turning point. He was quick to be disgusted with the classical teachings of the University’s undergraduate system, and quickly fell in love with the modern philosophy of René Descartes. Soon, he received his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and finally his Bachelor’s of Medicine.
Locke fled to the Netherlands in 1683 to write. Some have argued that during his time here, Locke chose his friends “from among the same freethingking members of the dissenting Protestant groups as Spinoza’s small group of loyal confidants”. He also met men that shared the same political and philosophical ideas as him, strengthening his ideas.
Then he migrated to the Netherlands, where he returned to writing more. This time, he spent time revising his essay, and did not come home until after the Glorious Revolution.
People who have researched Locke believe that his political views were greatly influenced by his religious views. In his early traditions, he was in Calvinist Trinitarianism, but soon after he converted to Socinian Christology. He was a true believer in Creation, or a creationist. He always put natural law and biblicals revelation in close relation of each other, in which his ideas were proved successful.