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How Did John Locke Contribute To The Enlightenment

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The Key to Locke John Locke “proved to be the most influential philosophical and political thinker of the seventeenth century” (Kagen 213). He lived in a period of great political change; Locke’s upbringing came to influence his philosophies, and these ideas had much significance in regards to the Enlightenment. Locke was born on August 29, 1632 in Wrington, Somerset ("John Locke" 9: 478). Early on came the outbreak of the English Civil War. Anglican and possessing Puritan sympathies, Locke’s father fought with the parliamentary forces against the royalist cavaliers. Locke became a factor in the English Restoration after the conflict: a defender of the rights of the people. He received a formal education from Westminster School and then Oxford. Generally uninterested in “… the traditional Scholastic curriculum of rhetoric, grammar, moral philosophy, geometry, and Greek,” Locke began to delve into experimental science and medicine ("Locke" 23: 221). He was given membership into the newly formed Royal Society in London, keeping him in touch with scientific advances, and also became familiar with the important natural philosophers of the time. Through mutual interest and values, Locke came into association with Lord Ashley, the earl of Shaftesbury, and was drawn into political affairs. Sufferings due to asthma caused Locke to move from polluted London back to Oxford, and six months later to France for four years; his travels not only alleviated his symptoms but put him into

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