John lockes beliefs on natural rights theory

John Locke was one of the most important Enlightenment philosophers. John Locke's beliefs in natural rights, his ideas of the social contract, and his ideas on the role of government remain very influential today, serving as a foundation for modern democracy.

John Locke Biography

John Locke's biography begins when he was born in Wrington, England in 1632. Locke was able to attend both Westminster School in London and Christ Church at Oxford, studying medicine.

At this time, Locke was exposed to new experimental ideas being practiced at Oxford. They applied the ideas of the Scientific Revolution and sought to learn by observing nature. This type of learning and attempt to explain things by nature would have a profound impact on John Locke's philosophy.

Fig 1 - Portrait of John Locke.

John Locke and Lord Shaftesbury

In 1666, a chance encounter with Lord Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury, led to Locke becoming his personal doctor. Shaftesbury was a prominent political figure and

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“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

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Locke’s Political Philosophy

1. Natural Law and Natural Rights

Perhaps the most central concept in Locke’s political philosophy is his theory of natural law and natural rights. The natural law concept existed long before Locke as a way of expressing the idea that there were certain moral truths that applied to all people, regardless of the particular place where they lived or the agreements they had made. The most important early contrast was between laws that were by nature, and thus generally applicable, and those that were conventional and operated only in those places where the particular convention had been established. This distinction is sometimes formulated as the difference between natural law and positive law.

Natural law is also distinct from divine law in that the latter, in the Christian tradition, normally referred to those laws that God had directly revealed through prophets and other inspired writers. Natural law can be discovered by reason alone and