John Locke 3 Essay, Research Paper
John Locke
John Locke was someone that was more than just an
ordinary man, He could be considered one of the forefathers of
democracy, was a great philosopher. He was brought up in a
very unique home with many awkward and unusual topics
brought up during a family discussion. Locke had wide variety
of political and religious views. Locke also expressed many
views on education. He had many political and social
philosophies.
John Locke was born at Wrington Somerset, England. This
was a small town south of Bristol. Locke’s father was a puritan
attorney and clerk to a justice of peace in Wrington Somerset.
His father’s discipline to the young philosopher John Locke was
very strict. This helped John later in life disciplining him self
to his essays and his thoughts. But as a child raised in a bookish
home, he had received a good private education before entering
school. His family was visited by very wealthy and influential
people. These influential visitors would challenge Locke’s mind
and have him express is feelings on certain topics at a very
young age. This I believe helped Locke in his future in
philosophy and his writings.
In the fall of 1647 John was admitted to a tough course of
studies under the school’s headmaster, Dr. Richmond Busby.
This was Locke’s first enrollment at a school away from his
home. This experience would be a major building blocks for his
career. During his schooling he was educated in Doctrines of
Political Liberty. This was one of the topics in the Locke’s
home when he wasn’t at school. John’s father was also a
political philosopher. He loved to go into great detail about
society’s state of mind by the way they elect their government
representatives. As you can see the Lockes were every well
educated and could grasp many difficult concepts. But these
were very common subjects in the Locke’s household. Locke
graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in February of 1656
and continued his residency at Oxford University for his masters
degree. His further studies were in the field of Aristotelian
Logic, language, and Metaphysics. His program included
history, astronomy, and natural philosophy. Education was very
important to Locke. He was very determined in his school work
through out his life. If he couldn’t understand something in
school, He tried very hard to understand it. Locke’s early
contact with experimental science helped form his attitudes
toward his questions of philosophy, politics, medicine,
education, and religion. Locke attend medical lectures on a
regular basis and became a student of Robert Boyle who is the
“father of modern chemistry.” Holland provided him with a lot
of encouragement for his many ideas of popular sovereignty and
religious freedom.
Locke had many views of both political and religious.
These were his most famous areas for his thoughts and
philosophies. Locke was very famous for his thoughts
throughout history in many countries. He was one of the first
people that thought that Religion and state should be separated.
Locke published anonymously his two treaties of civil
government in 1690. He had worked on this for many years.
The first treaty attacked on views expressed in “Sir Robert
Filmers Patriarch.” The second treaty takes Locke’s own
positive contribution to political philosophy. It was not really
uncommon for Locke to publish his works anonymously. Locke
like to keep his works secretive. But his political views in his
time could have gotten him sentenced to death.
Locke went to major extremes as to use invisible ink. One
of Locke major views was that Religion and government should
be separated. He thought they should be separated because that
the government interferes to much with religion. He also
believes that the government takes the laws of the church into
their own hands and make what they think is morally and
politically correct.
Locke in general was a very easy going guy, yet a firm
person in his beliefs. He loved practically all children. He
greatly enjoyed being a guardian and tutor to the children of his
friends. Locke was very devout Christian. He tried to stress to
his pupils how important God was in their lives. He taught that
you should not be very fond of people who accept religious
doctrine on blind faith. He also stressed his concern for
discovering truth was put truth ahead of any desire for personal
fame or reputation.
Locke’s views concerning religion are expressed mostly in
the essay and in the Reasonableness of Christianity which was
published in 1695. Lock once said, “religious belief that rests
merely on authority has an uncertain foundation.” This means
that when a religion gives you orders to do something and you
can’t answer why. The religion becomes very shaky and start to
go away from it. Locke’s belief in the existence of god is
argumentative. He believes that reason will con
intelligent person that God must exist as a first cause. In The
Essay he tries to demonstrate this, by saying, “though God has
given us no innate ideas of himself.” Locke takes Gods
existence to be “the most obvious truth reason discovers.” But
scholars agree that Locks reasonableness of Christianity
represents an idea to the necessity of religion as a guide for the
common people. Locke reduces Christianity to a very simple
reasonable religion. The fundamentals of this idea are that
people believe in Jesus Christ the Messiah, and that they live by
the Christian codes based on God’s revelation. Locke also
argues his strong belief that religion should be separated from
state.
Locke’s works do not include a complex article on ethics.
In the essay he expresses confidence that a deductive science of
ethics. His two most different theories are rationalism and
hedonism. Rationalism are the view that reason alone is
sufficient to determine the right good or just. And hedonism is
the view that, “The good is whatever produces or tends to
produce pleasure.” According to Locke’s theory, moral value is
resolved by our feelings of pleasure and pain.
Ethics is capable of demonstration, because moral
principles are composed by simple ideas that are brought
together without any regard to nature. Through out Locke’s
total career he does not tell us what is particular actions we
make are wrong or what actions in our lives are right. Locke
also said that, ” a person or group of people desire something
does not make the action or object in question good.” Locke
also said, “It seems that it is impossible to ever pronounce an
action is good or bad on sensual grounds. Since all the
consequences of the act cannot be calculated.” Locke will note
five lasting pleasures through out his whole career. These
pleasures are health, a good name, knowledge, doing good, and
eternal paradise.
Locke’s views on education, political and social philosophy
was very great in his whole career. According to Locke most
people neglect their understanding and consequently fall short
of what they could attain in a life time. Locke’s two articles on
civil government first appeared to the public anonymously in
1690. Only in his will did Locke acknowledge authorship of the
works he had written. It is generally assumed that the first
article was written in the 1685 and the second in 1698. It
cannot be persuaded with the notion of the two articles being
separate discourses written at different times. It is convincing
to view the first article as an answer to Filmer. Because
Cranston notes, “at the level of practical politics hobbes did not
have a fraction of the importance as Filmer had.” In order to
justify the invitation to William, Locke felt that it was an essay
to reflute the amendment that argues that appear in “The
Patriarch”. Hobbes argues as much as Filmer does that absolute
power must be vested in a monarch who, for the general good of
all the people must be a oppressor. The king is simply not
answerable to anyone. This conclusion is read by making sure
any questions concerning the nature of human beings.
Locke’s Social and political philosophy is based upon
certain assumptions concerning the origin of government. The
primitive condition of human beings and the steps by which
civil society was established. According to Locke people live in
a state of prior to the formation of the government. Locke
insists that people are naturally equal in the sense that no one
has natural jurisdiction over others. Locke’s description of the
state of nature was an historical account of how political society
developed. Locke describes the chief of civil society as, First,
the preservation of the property and second, the provision of a
system of justice.
Locke had very many elaborate views on many topics during his
life time. As you can see one of the substantial views that affects our
country today is that religion and state should be separated. Maybe if it
wasn’t for Locke we our government might not exist for his influential
thinking. To me John Locke was very important in our history. He had
many other views that has effected this world and country. But over all
I experienced many things will researching this report and writing it.
When I first started out I had no idea who John Locke was, but now I
know how much he has effected history in a major way. But by doing
this report made me think of how one persons opinion can change the
entire way a nation can change their views.
Bibliography
Squadrito, Kathleen John Locke, Twayne Publishers 1979
Jenkins, John Understanding Locke, Edinburgh, Edinburgh
University Press 1983
Eisenach, Eldon Two Worlds of Liberalism, Chicago, The
University of Chicago Press 1981
Rivitch, Daine and Thernstorm, Abigail The Democracy reader,
New York, Harpercollins publishers 1992 pg 31-39
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 97 , 1993-1996