John locke ideas in declaration of independence
•
While the Declaration of Independence had many influences, the most notable was the influence of the Social Contract. The Social Contract is the agreement between the government and its citizens, and defines the rights of each party. John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau are most notable for the creation of the social contract political philosophy. The Social Contract believes that “individuals are born into an anarchic state of nature. Then, by exercising natural reason, formed a society (and a government) by means of a contract among themselves.” In other words, people are born into the world without any knowledge or opinions but then develop their views based on their society. Their society, in turn, is affected and altered based on the people’s beliefs. Self-interest, or “personal interest or advantage,” inspires a society and government who derives its power from the people. The social contract states that “rational people” should believe in organized government, and
•
John Locke
Known as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, John Locke was born on August 29, 1632 in Somerset, England to devout Puritan parents. His father, also named John, worked as a clerk to the local Justice of the Peace and served as a cavalry captain in the English Civil War. As a teenager, Locke attended the distinguished Westminster School in London at the nomination of his father’s former commander. After that, he received an appointment to Christ Church at the University of Oxford in 1652.
Locke found his studies frustrating at both Westminster and Oxford, particularly the classical curriculum of Greek and Roman philosophy. Instead, he gravitated toward the modern works of René Descartes and other Enlightenment philosophers. He also took interest in medicin and experimental philosophy during his tenure at Oxford. After earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree by 1658, Locke pursued a bachelor of medicine
•
“Fifty years after the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson explained it to his fellow Virginian Henry Lee:
When [the colonies were] forced … to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. … Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion (Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825).
In articulate and memorable phrases, The Declaration in its famous first paragraph