Who was John Locke?
John Locke studied medicine at Oxford, then became doctor and adviser to the Earl of Shaftesbury, who led the opposition to Charles II. Locke lived in exile in the Netherlands in the 1680s and came home once William replaced James II in 1688-1689. Over the next two years his main books appeared: the Two Treatises of Government, a letter on toleration and a major essay on how the mind gains knowledge. His politics start from the idea that people have natural rights before any state exists. They set up governments by agreement to protect those rights, and a government that betrays that trust can lawfully be resisted.
Political views
- Believed every person is born free and equal under a natural law that bars harm to another's life, health, liberty or goods.Source: gutenberg.org
- Said people gain property when they mix their work with things nobody owns, so long as nothing is wasted and enough is left for others.Source: plato.stanford.edu
- Backed majority rule, the top place of the legislature, and a split between lawmaking and executive power.Source: plato.stanford.edu
- Held that when rulers attack people's rights or break the trust given to them, the people may resist and replace them.Source: iep.utm.edu
- Rejected force by rulers to push the true faith on their subjects, and denied that churches may compel their members.Source: plato.stanford.edu
- Said the main purpose of civil government is to protect property, a word he used for lives, liberties and estates together.Source: press-pubs.uchicago.edu
- Insisted that the government may not tax people's property unless the people, or their deputies, agree to it.Source: gutenberg.org
Legacy
Locke is often named as a father of liberalism. His talk of natural rights and consent echoes in the American Declaration of Independence and later constitutions. Classical liberals and libertarians lean on his account of property, while other readers find room in it for public rules in the common interest. Critics point to his links with colonial projects, including signs that he had a hand in editing the Carolina constitutions. They also argue about whether his view of unused land as empty helped excuse the taking of Indigenous land.
In their own words
“Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”