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.