While John Locke was writing both the Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration there were two influences that were his inspiration for those two writings. The English Civil War (1642-1649) and The Glorious Revolution (1688- 1689). The Civil War because of disconnect between the people and the monarchy. The Glorious Revolution was a bloodless war that installed William III and Mary II into power in France and he was very religious in his roman catholic believes. Locks writing stresses two different aspects involving the issues he saw from these two events and how they should be fixed.
First let get a background on Mr. Locke. Growing up during the middle of the English Civil War, his views were heavily influenced by his father who fought with parliament against the Monarchy. He also studied
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He believes that the legislative branch is the most important part of the English government. “Their power, in the utmost bounds of it, is limited to the public good of society (pg. 746). Where instead of the law makers only making laws to benefit themselves, they should do what is best for the commonwealth. Locke continues to stay that the legislative’s power should come from the commonwealth. “It is true, governments cannot be supported without great charge, and it is fit every one who enjoys his share of the protection, should pay out of his estate his proportion for the maintenance of it”(pg. 749). Locke states that if someone partakes in the protection and services of the government, they should pay takes in order to help the government. This makes sense, if someone reeks the benefits that the government offers them, than we should contribute to the government. Even if we were or weren’t born in this country, we are old enough to make our decisions so if we do not approve what our government is doing we have one of three options. Act and make changes, leave, or deal with
Background Info: Locke was born in 1632 to a wealthy Puritan family and was highly involved in politics during the Glorious Restoration. His witnessing of the effective overthrowing of the government in order to place better suited rulers in power greatly influenced his perspective on government (RJ Lecture).
He believed the people were given divine rights to life, liberty and property. These right were ordained in the garden by God and passed down from Adam to all people. Locke believed the people did need a government, just like Hobbs, but government needed to be limited. The only role for government was to ensure the natural rights of the people. He also believed that the people had the right to revolt if the government failed to support the natural rights of the people. His beliefs in the role of government were influence by the Glorious revolution in 1688-1689 . This was a bloodless confrontation resulted in the oursing of James II and the establishment of Willam III and Mary II. Locke saw how the rules of government played out in a peacable
He talks about human equality and believed that all people are creatures of the same species and rank. He believed that everyone should be able to be part of the government and can make it a better one because people are equal amongst each other without different rankings and positions. According to John Locke in Document A, this idea was important because the people had the right to create a new government if the old government fails to do it correctly. Most philosophers believe that having a government is a necessity and due to this, freedom in government has a huge affect on one's society because without one, a community will fall into conflict over power. Individual freedom plays a big part in improving the government because if the people are able to decide on how the role of a government should play out and who should be a part of it, their rights will be protected and their society can gradually grow. As Locke states, people can decide upon whether or not they want a new administration, which means that they'd replace the old one with a new one, which would do much more for their society. To have a government that knows how to do their job, peoples’ rights will be better protected which can improve society as a whole because of the
John Locke was an Enlightenment writer and a political theorist. He wrote the “Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, which helped advance the theory of self-progression through experience. He argued that a government is not formed without the consent of people who in turn obey it, meaning that the established government was formed by consenting individuals and obeyed by those consenting to it.
John Locke also wrote that if the government, “shall transgress this fundamental rule of society, and either by ambition, fear, folly, or corruption” that the citizens would have the right to overthrow that government. This idea deeply influenced Thomas Jefferson as he drafted the Declaration of Independence. Throughout history John Locke’s philosophies were very influential and his political opinions helped draft much of the U.S
John Locke was one of the philosophers who sparked the idealism of pro representation in the colonies in North America. The ideas of John Locke were seen as a guideline for the British colonies to set a foundation for democracy; it is seen as. His book Two Treatises of Government was “an appeal to heaven” and was planning to rid Charles the II of his position as a monarchy. John Locke did not intend to start up a revolution in the British colonies, but rather intended his book to critique against Absolutism. To some extent John Locke’s ideas were good for the colonies in North America and the United States.
He knew first hand that it could not be a monarchy where the government, because the people have no rights or freedoms and are forced to be submissive to the government of their society. Locke also knew that no government was not the solution to this problem as well, for with no government there is no protection of the people and their rights. Locke came up with the idea of a limited government where there is a government, but the government is limited in the power it has, and it would have to be for the people and by the people. According to Locke governments are formed by the consent of the governed and for the governed, and if at any time the people do not like the government officials they have chosen then the people living in the society could choose to remove and re-elect new government officials. This would make it very different from living in Locke’s era under a monarch, but also different from living in a perfect freedom society.
John Locke originally published this letter to an “honored sir” who was his friend Philipp van Limborch. In this letter he talks of a new relationship between religion and government. He wrote this when there was much fear that England would become Catholic, but Locke Argues that toleration is the solution to this conflict. He argues that more religious groups means less civil unrest, civil unrest results from one religious group oppressing another. (Toleration, p 1)
John Locke was born on August 29, 1632 in Wrington, England. During this time the Puritan migration to New England was occurring. Locke was born into a Puritan family, but he was able to receive a good education. A good education was difficult to get during this time unless you were of a higher social class, but luckily for Locke his father has connections to the English government. The first school he attended was Westminster school in 1647 then continued his schooling at Christ Church, University of Oxford (1652). While at Christ Church he studied medicine and graduated in 1656. Locke’s extensive schooling led to him being elected to the Royal Society in 1668. Locke graduated with a bachelors in medicine in 1674, he then moved to London to be Lord Ashley’s (Lord of Shaftsbury) personal physician. Gradually Lord Ashley became a more important figure in the society, Locke’s responsibilities grew too. Locke began to get involved with political and business matters, when Lord
John Locke, perhaps the greatest single influence on early American political thought, studied and articulated truths that had been simply assumed. His experiences during the English Civil War and efforts to bring about the Glorious Revolution led him to search for ways to legitimize resistance to an overbearing king. His final argument, the Second Treatise of Government, clarifies British constitutional laws by focusing on the individual’s rights in relation to those of society, setting the stage for both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, and permeating Western culture.
Locke’s main discussions of freedom took place in his work entitled Two Treatises on Government. These views were built upon the view of a natural state in which every individual maintained a state of natural freedom. In this natural state, each individual was free to make decisions and choose actions without any constraints. Locke felt that under this view every individual should maintain equal and independent and refrain from harming one another. However, the main problem in this concept of freedom is that fact that an individual’s free will can be constrained by the actions of another.
John Locke was born in 1632, in Wrington, England. He studied medicine at the University of Oxford, but he eventually became the great philosopher everyone remembers him as (Connolly, n.d.). In 1688, King William III, supported by the Whigs, took the throne of England from King James II in what is known as the Glorious Revolution (UK Parliament, n.d.). Locke had a strong connection with the Whigs in England, so he wrote the Second Treatise on Government as a justification for the revolution. Throughout the Second Treatise on Government, Locke claims that an individual is born with the rights to “life, liberty, and property.” He believes that it is the governments purpose to preserve these rights with laws which favor neither the rich nor poor. In addition, these laws must be designed for “the good of the people.” Lastly, “[the government] must not raise taxes on the property of the people, without the consent of the people…” (Locke, 1688)
John Locke had many accomplishments. John Locke has public may significance writing; Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689, Two Treaties of Government in 1690, and Letters Concerning Toleration in 1689-1692. John Locke’s “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” defined the theory of human knowledge, identity and selfhood. In his “Two Treatises of Government” believing that the legitimacy of government relies on consent from its citizens which is given on the basis of equality. A government has the duty to protect the natural rights of its people, if they fail to protect these rights, the citizen have the right to overthrow the government. This writing shows John Locke beliefs in “life, liberty, and property.” In his “Letters Concerning Toleration,”
The Glorious Revolution and The American Revolution had similarities. Each ended with practically the same thing as each other. They both are just in different times and with different people. The Glorious Revolution, also known as the 1688 Revolution, basically put an end to King James II and it started to put a start to religious freedom.
John Locke was an English writer, and his writings were based on the events that took place during the Glorious Revolution in England in 1689, when the people of England overthrew King James II. John Locke was interestingly enough, brought up in a loyalist and Evangelical family. He was born to a very wealthy family, and received much prestige in Oxford for his connections to the higher ups. Locke presented his ideas of rebellion during the English civil war which took place in the mid-1600s, in favor of the revolts against the King’s rule in England at the time. John Locke graduated with a degree in medicine from Oxford University.