РефератыИностранный языкJoJohn Locke 3 Essay Research Paper John

John Locke 3 Essay Research Paper John

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

vince any


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

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