John Locke's Influence on the American and English Bill of Rights

John Locke's Influence on the American and English Bill of Rights

Philosophy Q. You are invited to study the contribution of two of the selected authors/texts/groups of texts to the evolving notions of reason, individualism, freedom, responsibility (intellectual and ethical), with some reference to the historical context in which these contributions were made. A. I have chosen John Locke and his influence and contributions to the English and American Bill of Rights as my two subjects. John Locke was born on the 29th of August 1632 in Wrington, Somerset, England. He died on 28 October 1704 in Essex, England. Locke is considered to be the first of the British Empiricists, but he is also extremely important to the social contract theory. He was influenced by philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Samuel Rutherford, Descartes, Hooker, Hobbes and the Polish Brethren. His ideas had huge influence on certain subjects like the development of epistemology and political philosophy. He is internationally regarded as one of the most influential enlightenment thinkers, classical republicans, and contributors to liberal theory. His influence on others was great. He influenced the likes of Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish enlightenment thinkers. He also influenced the American Revolutionaries, and this influence can be seen in the reflection of the American Declaration of Independence. In his acceptance of the existence of God, Locke was a bit of a dualist, though only barely so. He did not consider man to be a divine and pure creature fixed with ideas on coming into this world. Locke was an empiricist, i.e. all knowledge comes to us through our experiences. "No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience"(John Locke in Locke: An Introduction by John W. Yolton). There is no such thing as innate ideas, there is no such thing as moral precepts. We are born with a completely empty mind or, with a soft tablet (_tabula rasa_) ready to be written upon by experimental impressions and experiences. Beginning blank, the human...

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