Essay On John Locke Natural Rights

Improved Essays
John Locke and his idea of natural rights has been key in shaping our ideals as a government and as a country. Locke was born on August 29, 1632 in Wrington, United Kingdom. He grew to be a great scholar and philosopher, going on to voice the importance of our natural rights; life,liberty, and property. Locke believed that, by nature, all men were created to be free and equal. His idea went on to be written in the Declaration of Independence (written as “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”) when America became its own land. Locke also wrote Two Treatises of Government in 1689. This composition describes the purpose and power of the government and how the government should serve its people. It also describes the purpose of the people and their duties and rights as servants of God. Locke was a very religious man, relating a lot of his philosophies back to God. The natural rights are important because they represent equality and independence for everyone in America. We should memorialize theses concepts because they are important ideals …show more content…
Some might argue that John Locke and his philosophy are insignificant. They might believe that life, liberty and property are not mandatory rights that the government should have the power to protect. It is possible for them to not be educated enough on the topic to fully understand it’s impertinence. I argue that our natural rights are the most necessary rights to defend. They are the foundation of our country, government, and society. Our natural rights preserve our right to liveliness, freedom, and ownership. Without these rights, our country would not be as successful and admirable as it is today. It is of utmost importance that we memorialize John Locke and our natural rights. It will serve as a reminder of who we are as Americans, what we aim for as a society, and that we are all equal and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    John Locke’s work and stress on “Natural rights” got Americans pay more attention to their liberty and their rights. Locke’s work influences the American Revolution and later, sets the basic principles of the U.S.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Born in 1632, John Locke, an English political philosopher, is an important figure of the early European Enlightenment. Locke reasons that natural rights are inalienable, and that God’s rule overruled government authority. Government official, crucial and intolerable to Locke’s work during the seventeenth, temporarily ban this radical man known as the Father of Liberalism. However, Locke’s writings continue to prompt intellectual discussion, including maintaining order while reserving the laws of…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nothing is more thought provoking than how the past can affect the future. Because of the conditions that they grew up in, John Locke, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Voltaire would have had different viewpoints on human nature. Some would admire it and aspire to uphold the laws and duties that were proclaimed in said writing while others would find small injustices within its words. Between these three individuals, their responses to the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence would be both similar and contrasting due to a number of reasons concerning both government and human society. John Locke’s life and societal philosophies had an impact not only on England but on the rest of the world as well.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The enlightenment was one of the most revolutionary times in this world and there were lots of incredible and extraordinary thinker during this period of time, which all of them shaped and impacted the world but John Locke however was one of most revolutionary thinkers of that time that since he influenced and impacted how governments functioned and the power of common folk’s say in the government power and limits. Essentially John Locke principles influenced and profoundly improved on our understanding on how governments should function as said that “…..John Locke, was an outspoken supporter of equal rights within a governed society. He espoused the natural rights of man, namely the right to life, liberty and property, and he articulated that every government’s purpose is to secure these rights for its nationals. ”(Broers, 1) John Locke’s work on natural theory is famous and has been touched by other philosophers such as Thomas…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Without these rights, we can not be successful in serving a king, or any other ruler, as humans need these undeniable rights to feel properly respected and taken care of by their government. John Locke’s writing in the Second Treatise On Government (1690) is the perfect example of how enlightenment thinking had influenced the way the founding fathers had shaped America. Thomas Jefferson had almost used Locke’s exact language when he was writing the Declaration of Independence, eighty six…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Declaration of Independence proclaims that all men are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and that the purpose of a government is to ensure these rights (Jefferson 236). Its author, Thomas Jefferson, would alter the course of political history with that phrase, but it has still caused much debate today. The meaning of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is somewhat ambiguous and has been adapted with different meanings throughout American history. A profound influence on Jefferson’s writings was the work of John Locke, a British philosopher, particularly known for his Second Treatise.…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freedom and race have always been highly controversial topics within the United States. From the very beginning of our nation, our founding fathers wrote and fought in able to gain their freedom from England. Possibly the most influential of them being Thomas Jefferson after he wrote The Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was a wealthy land owner from Virginia, and he worked diligently to earn freedom for himself and his fellow countrymen. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have a man named Frederick Douglass.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    John Locke’s views from the Second Treatise of Government In the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke expressed many of his own views on the relation of the individual to society and more specifically the rights one has in society and the responsibilities these rights come with. First, he explains the right of ontological equality. Each person has the right and ability to execute natural law at will: “the equality of men by nature (Locke 147).…

    • 1573 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    John Locke was an Enlightenment thinker and he believed in Natural rights (life liberty and property). Locke, also believed in the right to overthrow and establish a new government if the current government fails to protect the people. (Document A) The Two Treatises on Government, written by John Locke and The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson both share common ideas for a democratic government. The government is to protect the people and their natural rights and the people have the right to overthrow the government if they fail to protect their rights.…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The British philosopher John Locke articulated this premises in his Second Treatise of Government, “that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” Firstly, Locke believed as a fact, that there are no inherent inequalities of human worth, and that thinking and feeling occur individually. Secondly, from the biological premises of equality and independence, “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it.” Heavily influenced by Locke, the founders of the United States Constitution inscribed the acknowledgement and recognition of such preexisting and natural law and rights into the Constitution with the 9th…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Maxwell James 9/29/16 Mr. Puzzo World History (H) John Locke and the French Revolution John Locke was a French philosopher and was interested in how a citizen and a government interact together, in times of peace and in times of tension. John Locke studied government and came to many conclusions; the role of government is to protect citizen’s natural rights: Life, Liberty and property. If a government wasn’t adequately protecting citizen’s natural rights, the citizens had a responsibility to overthrow that government and establish a new government that does better to protect those rights.…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Locke referred quite often to the ‘state of nature’ and ‘the law(s) of nature’ in The Second Treatise of Civil Government: (“to understand political power aright, and derive it from its original, we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom…,” by which he meant that all people are born with certain natural rights, life, liberty, and property, and John Locke believed that the point of the government is to protect these three natural rights. The inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence , life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, had their beginnings with John Locke’s natural rights. The natural rights are also found within section one of the Virginia Declaration of Rights: “That all men are by nature equally free and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and…

    • 1085 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Locke advocated natural rights with an optimistic view on human nature. He believed they had natural rights that belonged to all humans from birth which included the rights of life, liberty, and property. Locke believed that we formed governments to protect these natural rights but the best government would have limited power and would be accepted by the citizens. Unlike Hobbes, Locke did not like the idea of absolute…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Every human has civil rights, political rights, and social rights. These human rights were establish by nature and clarified by the philosopher John Locke. He wrote up a social contract that established the authority of state over the individual that make up the state. Mr. Locke claims that individuals have consented, to submit some freedoms and surrender to the government or the law of the land. These concessions are made in good faith that the state or nation can protect civil, political, and social rights.…

    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Locke, therefore, disqualifies any doctrine that sovereignty belonged by nature a man of destiny. According to him, there is no political power at the state of society, resulting from free contract by men to make laws. However, the laws are legitimate only if they accurately reflect the natural rights of man are his personal freedom, but also his right to property and the right to exchange the…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays