John+Locke

John Locke is known as one of the most influential people that surfaced during the enlightenment. He believed that humans were reasonable beings and could rule themselves without the help of an absolute monarch. He also felt that rebellion is permissible when the government destabilizes the ends for which it was established.

Locke was born on August 29, 1632 in Wrington, Somerset. Locke’s father, who’s name was also John Locke, was a country lawyer and a clerk to the Justices of the Peace in Chew Magna. His mother’s name was Agnes Keene, and both his mother and father were Puritans. In 1647, Locke was sent to the prominent Westminster School in London under the sponsorship of Alexander Popham. After he concluded his studies there, he went to Christ Church, Oxford. While, he was a capable student, the curriculum goaded him. He found the work of modern philosophers, such as René Descartes much more fascinating. Locke then became interested in medicine and experimental philosophy, and eventually joined the English Royal Society.

Locke obtained his bachelor’s degree in 1656, his master’s in 1658. Then he acquired his bachelor’s in medicine in 1674, having studied it extensively in Oxford working with renowned scientists such as Robert Boyle, Thomas Willis, and Richard Lower. In London, Locke resumed his medical studies under the guidance of Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham had a major impact on Locke’s natural philosophical thinking, which is noticed in Locke’s famous //__An Essay Concerning Human Understanding__//, written in 1690.

John Locke’s theory of knowledge had an immense impact on eighteenth-century intellectuals. In this written content, Locke argued with Descartes’ belief in innate ideas. Locke believed that every person was born with a //tabula rasa//, or a blank mind. He basically meant that everyone human mind was like a white paper, without any ideas or characters, and then through experience and observation have we been molded. He felt that all humans are born free and equal, with three natural rights: life, liberty, and property. His theory was that by changing the environment and subjecting people to appropriate influences, they could be changed and a new society could be created.