Thomas Jefferson And John Locke And The Declaration Of Independence

Human rights are universal, indivisible, and interdependent. Generally, human rights are what differentiates us from other mammals or other living creatures; we consciously think before acting. During the enlightenment era there were many philosophers who had different perspectives on our natural rights , John Locke believed that people have the right to life, liberty, and property,Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and believes that all men were created equally with the right to govern, and Mary Wollstonecraft believed that women played the same role in a society as men do and should not be underestimated of their abilities. These three philosophers have definitely influenced our society today and have changed my view …show more content…
Jefferson adopted many of his ideas from John Locke. For example, Locke explains that humans have natural rights of life, liberty, and property. But Jefferson decides restates this claim as unalienable Rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Also that all men are equal and have equal human rights that are God-given.They both generally state that natural rights can 't be taken away because humans are born with rights that are governed by natural laws and not by a government. HE believed that the government is created among men to secure these rights, and when the government fails to do their job the people have the right to eliminate them. Unlike Locke, Jefferson helped create the Declaration of Independence that basically gave birth to many other freedoms in the US and is still symbolic till this day. What I find most interesting about Thomas JEfferson and his philosophy is that compared to John Locke these rights he talked about did not apply to slaves during his time. It may have been because he considered slaves as property and that it was a Cultural blind spot he shared with most of the people who were in power during the …show more content…
Although these ideas of human rights were discovered in the past it has continuously affected the modern world today. For example, with locke and Jefferson 's similar ideology of how men are created equal and have the right to life and liberty can relate to racism we have in our society today. If men are created equal, racist jokes and comments shouldn 't be floating around our environment creating corruption among our community. As for Mary Wollstonecraft , her belief of women receiving an education may not have a big impact here in the US but in several Asian countries like Vietnam some families do not allow their daughters to receive an education because they are stereotyped to stay indoors to do