John Locke Presentation

By Tony Gengo

“All mankind…being all equal

and independent, no one ought
to harm another in his life,
health, liberty or possessions.”-
Locke
 John Locke
• Was a famous English philosopher.
• Was the first writer to put together
ideas for a constitutional
democracy.
• Most of the work by Locke is
characterized by opposition of the
people or government institutions
to absolute power.
 Background events during
Locke’s Life
• The Crown and Parliament in England
were in feud during a good part of
his life.
• Cromwell’s Puritan Republic, having
no monarchy at all.
• Glorious Revolution
 Early Life of Locke
- John Locke was born in Wrington, England in
1632. He died in Essex in 1704.
- His mother died when he was an infant, and
his father, too, shortly after.
- He went to school at the Westminster school
in 1646 and to the University of Oxford in
1652.
- His early training consisted of the classics,
and his later training consisted of
medicine and experimental science.
- Elector of Brandenburg.
- Royal Society
 Essay Concerning Human
Understanding
- 1690
- Locke tried to figure out what these
limits are.
- tabula rasa
- This essay became a great tool of his
outstanding legacy since it
discussed the origin, nature, and
limits of human knowledge.
-
-
Letter Concerning Toleration
• 1689
• Government existed to preserve
property, not to force religious
decisions on the governed.
• Toleration was a problem for Locke
towards the Christians
• Thanks to Locke’s work in the 17th
century, religious toleration is
extended to a lot of religious
groups today.
 Two Treatises of
Government
• published in 1690.
• In this work he formed the basis for
constitutional democracy.
• natural law and natural rights.
• Night-watchmen Theory of
Government
• The government and the governed
had a social contract
 Beliefs of Locke

• rejected the idea of

divine right monarchy
• defended the right of
revolution
• separation of powers
How Locke’s ideas differed with
Thomas Hobbes’s beliefs
• 1588-1679
• Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian
War.
• Leviathan
• Humans were only portrayed in a
mechanical way in society.
• Human beings only existed, he said, to meet
the needs of daily life.
• Hobbes believed that a commonwealth
could be established only if humans had
their free exercises limited.
• absolutist government!
 Locke’s influences
• Descartes and Bacon
• He influenced Jefferson in the American
Revolution
• He influenced France in the French
Revolution and in the Declaration of
the Rights of Man.
• The consent of the governed, the social
contract, and the right of revolutions
concepts
• Declaration of Independence, Bishop
George Berkeley, David Hume
 Works Cited
1. Hart, Michael H. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential
Persons in History. Rev. ed. Secaucus, NJ: Carol
Publishing Group, 1998. Print.
2. Uzgalis, William. "John Locke." Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. N.p., 2007. Web. 25 Oct. 2009.
<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/>.
3. Taylor, Larissa., and Frank N. Magill, eds. The 17th Century:
1601-1700. 1st ed. Hackensack, NJ: Salem Press, 2006.
Print.
4. Kagan , Donald, Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner. The
Western Heritage. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education Inc. , 2007. Print.
5. "John Locke Quotes." Brainy Quote. Google, 2009. Web. 25
Oct. 2009.
<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_loc
ke.html>.
6. http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/locke.html
7. http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/locke.html
8. Hayes, Brian J. "John Locke Biography and Philosophy." age-