John_Loke_Essay

John Loke Essay Since government has existed, philosophers have tried to understand its principals and purpose. One such philosopher, John Locke, wrote revolutionary political theories that led to governmental reform in the United States and in Britain. Although theories concerning a government-free existence, or “state of nature,” were popular in Locke’s time, he postulated along very different lines than others had, and came to the innovative conclusion that all people have certain “natural rights:” life, liberty, and property. Locke’s idea of a social contract was revolutionary, too, which for the first time held the government responsible for the welfare of its subjects instead of the other way around. These aspects of Locke’s philosophy, so extreme in his time, have since influenced and transformed civil government by acting as a model for liberal political philosophy. John Locke’s theory of natural rights is the basis of all of his other political ideas. Locke, in his Second Treatise of Government, attempted to explain government and describe attributes of legitimate governments. The best way to understand government, in his view, was to imagine what life was like before there was any, and to figure out why it was first created. This “state of nature”(or life before government) was locke, government, rights, natural, locke’s, life, right, state, since, liberty, way, time, social, same, property, political, people, long, first, duty, contract, civil, understand, under, treatise, train, theory, theories, themselves, states, should, second, revolutionary, purpose, protected