John Locke's Quote Analysis

destroy.” and that is very true. You can tell by this document that John Locke was a

Locke had a very different feeling than did Hobbes about government. Locke felt that there should not be a monarch to rule people. He felt that citizens should be heard, there should more of a chance for common people to have a choice in the way their country is run. He thinks that a republic is the best choice. In document eight Immanuel Kant supports Locke’s idea because he said, “‘Have the courage to use your own reason...' nature has long since discharged them from external direction, nevertheless remains under lifelong tutelage…”What Kant meant by that is that even after people were set free from monarchy they still felt and acted as if they still had no say in anything and that they were afraid to speak their mind.

To understand Locke’s arguments, one must first look at the context in which he is writing. Locke lived in exile in the Netherlands at the time of writing because of his views. During this period, England had an official religion, the Church of England, and dissenters, such as Quakers or Puritans, and the government prevented them from practicing their respective religions.

John Locke did not view political unrest or even violent revolution as bad things since he believed that every person has the right to renegotiate and speak up. He saw the human nature as reasonably safe since he claims that human’s mind begins as a blank slate. Locke said, “ All ideas come from sensation or reflection.” (Of ideas). He believed that ideas come from two things. First is sensation, and that is by sensing particular objects, which convey into the mind several distinct perceptions. Second is reflection, which

Locke’s have developed different views on human nature. He states, that all the men should have natural right to get private property and protection should a top priority of the government. Locke’s powerful quotes states that the men should have the right to life, liberty and property. He depends on human reason to give citizens their freedom and their right to protect it. This freedom is the foundation of the individual’s way of life and their human rights. A threat to an individual’s freedom can be extended to be a threat to many other aspects of the individual to take away their freedom. One of the Locke’s quote states, “Master and servant are names as old as history, but

John Locke in his prose An Essay Concerning Human Understanding displays an extremely individualistic take on human reason (126). Proposing a perspective that is especially interesting during his time in the 17th century, which catered to a shift towards individual morals and responsibilities - the Puritan movement (Kang). Furthermore, John Locke sees the human mind as a product of one’s own experiences and inherent responsibilities, which is evident not only in his essay, but also in his upbringing (Locke; Spellman). His interest in the human mind positioned him to be the leader search for human understanding, a curiosity followed by many other writers such as Mary Astell and Judith Drake (Black et al.). While the former philosophy is not new to human inquiry as it was likely suppressed due to the anti-religious undertones it tends to convey (Being that we are self-perceived, so perceiving higher than ourselves might be a thing of question rather than fact), it was the shift from conventional to individual morals that allows for Locke’s approach to seem so ideal. The purpose of this essay will be to analyze Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding and determine how individualism is portrayed in this work (Locke). The conclusion is that Locke’s prose indicates that he endorses the idea of individualism through his theory of human understanding and self-acquired knowledge; furthermore, his work played a significant role in the propagation of individual morals during a

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.

Locke thought people knew what’s right and wrong, and what’s lawful and what’s not lawful well enough to resolve conflicts, but regrettably they don’t act in accords with this knowledge(knowledge of natural law). I believe this is also true. People grow up knowing what’s good to do and what’s not, but whether they

John Locke’s perspective on slavery demonstrates his attempt to create a utopian society. He believes that a man is unable to give power over his life to another person if he himself does not possess that power over his own life. Thus, Locke believes that because one does not have the liberty to take away his own life, he is unable to give this power to another person. After stating such restrictions, Locke states, “a man, not having the power of his own life, cannot, by compact, or his own consent, enslave himself to anyone” (Chapter 4, Section 23, Page 17). This demonstrates that John Locke believes that if one does not have power over his own life, another man is unable to enslave him. Locke’s beliefs place restrictions upon a

John Locke was perhaps one of the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke discusses the move from a state of nature and perfect freedom to a then governed society in which authority is given to a legislative and executive power. His major ideas included liberalism and capitalism, state of nature, state of war and the desire to protect one’s property.

He states, “All servants of one sovereign master, sent into the world by his order to do his business” I feel Locke is saying that we are all children of God and that we were sent into the world to do good works in his name. Example of doing good works would be spreading the Gods name all over the world. Locke said that, “they are his property, whose workmanship they are, made to last during his, not another’s pleasure.” I feel that Locke was saying that since God almighty made us we are his property basically he has soil possession over us. And God made us to be durable and live prosperous lives. Example

Locke asserts that humans have freedom but are not enabled to do anything they wish. Individuals are equal, independent, and carry the right to life, well-being, freedom, possessions. In addition, God created us as rational creatures, familiarizing them with the law of nature which impels them to be beneficial and well-disposed toward one another. Considering that we are all liberated and equal, then, cognizant of the fact that liberation is not equivalent to license,

John Locke is declaring that fundamental rights are something all human beings possess, as we all have an equal basic moral status. Predominantly, he believed that the agreement between the people and the government was a social contract and if the government was not upholding the rights of the people, the people should revolt and create a new government that would uphold people's

He would say that when people bully it’s because they have seen the world in a different way. Locke believed that “simple ideas of sense arise.” A person could have been taught that bullying is acceptable. So if one has seen the world as a bad place, then the person learns to be bad because that is what they have perceived. The same goes with academic cheating. Locke would say that the person has seen the world around it, and he or she can have a certain opinion on cheating depending what one has taken in their mind. Of course Locke would say academic cheating is bad because he believed that ethical principles applied to everyone. He believed in the idea of “natural right.” Not many people can distinguish between right or wrong, so it has come down to how the person is influenced that makes them

John Locke linked human behavior with our nature. He argued in his works that men are governed and guided by the rules within our nature. “The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.” (2nd Treatise.6) Even without any manmade laws that specifically guide us what and how to do a certain thing, we are programmed to follow basic rules mutually understood by every human on Earth. Locke brought up that these rules discourage, in fundamental, people from gaining power by depriving that of others. He noticed, by specifically employing the word mankind, that the ability to accept and live by this rudimentary rule is the ultimate characteristic that makes us who we are. It is the ability to respect other’s