John locke biography summary of thomas

Unlike Thomas Hobbes , Locke believed that human nature is characterised by reason and tolerance. Like Hobbes, however, Locke believed that human nature allows people to be selfish. This is apparent with the introduction of currency. In a natural state, all people were equal and independent, and everyone had a natural right to defend his "life, health, liberty, or possessions".

Like Hobbes, Locke assumed that the sole right to defend in the state of nature was not enough, so people established a civil society to resolve conflicts in a civil way with help from government in a state of society. Locke also advocated governmental separation of powers and believed that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some circumstances.

These ideas would come to have profound influence on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Accumulation of wealth See also: Lockean proviso Locke stresses that inequality has come about by tacit agreement on the use of money, not by the social contract establishing civil society or the law of land regulating property.

Locke implies that government would function to moderate the conflict between the unlimited accumulation of property and a more nearly equal distribution of wealth; he does not identify which principles that government should apply to solve this problem. Ideas On price theory Locke's general theory of value and price is a supply-and-demand theory.

Locke claims that, as far as money is concerned, the demand for it is exclusively regulated by its quantity, regardless of whether the demand is unlimited or constant. He also investigates the determinants of demand and supply. For supply , he explains the value of goods as based on their scarcity and ability to be exchanged and consumed. He explains demand for goods as based on their ability to yield a flow of income.

Locke develops an early theory of capitalisation , such as of land, which has value because "by its constant production of saleable commodities it brings in a certain yearly income". He considers the demand for money as almost the same as demand for goods or land: it depends on whether money is wanted as medium of exchange. Monetary thoughts Locke distinguishes two functions of money: as a counter to measure value, and as a pledge to lay claim to goods.

He believes that silver and gold, as opposed to paper money , are the appropriate currency for international transactions. Silver and gold, he says, are treated to have equal value by all of humanity and can thus be treated as a pledge by anyone, while the value of paper money is only valid under the government which issues it. Since the world money stock grows constantly, a country must constantly seek to enlarge its own stock.

Theory of value and property Locke uses the concept of property in both broad and narrow terms: broadly, it covers a wide range of human interests and aspirations; more particularly, it refers to material goods. He argues that property is a natural right that is derived from labour. In Chapter V of his Second Treatise , Locke argues that the individual ownership of goods and property is justified by the labour exerted to produce such goods—"at least where there is enough [land], and as good, left in common for others" para.

Locke states in his Second Treatise that nature on its own provides little of value to society, implying that the labour expended in the creation of goods gives them their value. From this premise, understood as a labour theory of value, Locke developed a labour theory of property, whereby ownership of property is created by the application of labour.

The human mind The self Locke defines the self as "that conscious thinking thing, whatever substance, made up of whether spiritual, or material, simple, or compounded, it matters not which is sensible, or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends".

He does not, however, wholly ignore "substance", writing that "the body too goes to the making the man". To discover truths beyond the realm of basic experience, Locke suggested an approach modeled on the rigorous methods of experimental science, and this approach greatly impacted the Scientific Revolution. Rejecting the divine right of kings, Locke said that societies form governments by mutual and, in later generations, tacit agreement.

Thus, when a king loses the consent of the governed, a society may remove him—an approach quoted almost verbatim in Thomas Jefferson 's Declaration of Independence. Locke famously wrote that man has three natural rights: life, liberty and property. His arrival back in his homeland had come in the aftermath of the dramatic departure of King James II, who'd fled the country, allowing the Whigs to rise to power.

Later called the Glorious Revolution of , the event forever changed English government, moving the balance of power from the throne to Parliament. It also set Locke up to be a hero to many in his native country. A hero to the Whig party, Locke remained connected to governmental affairs in his advanced years. He helped steer the resurrection of the Board of Trade, which oversaw England's new territories in North America.

Locke served as one of the body's key members. Long afflicted with delicate health, Locke died on October 28, , in Essex, where he'd resided over the last decade of his life. Locke's father, also named John, was an attorney who served as clerk to the Justices of the Peace in Chew Magna , [22] and as a captain of cavalry for the Parliamentarian forces during the early part of the English Civil War.

His mother was Agnes Keene. Soon after Locke's birth, the family moved to the market town of Pensford , about seven miles south of Bristol, where Locke grew up in a rural Tudor house in Belluton. At the age of 16 he was at school just half a mile away from the execution of Charles I ; however, the boys were not allowed to go and watch. After completing studies at Westminster, he was admitted to Christ Church , Oxford , in the autumn of at the age of The dean of the college at the time was John Owen , vice-chancellor of the university.

Although a capable student, Locke was irritated by the undergraduate curriculum of the time. Through his friend Richard Lower , whom he knew from the Westminster School, Locke was introduced to medicine and the experimental philosophy being pursued at other universities and in the Royal Society , of which he eventually became a member.

Ashley was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to become part of his retinue. At Oxford, he was exposed to the writings of Islamic scholars, such as Ibn Tufayl 's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan translated by Edward Pococke , who influenced his perspectives on philosophy and tabula rasa. In London, Locke resumed his medical studies under the tutelage of Thomas Sydenham.

John locke biography summary of thomas

Sydenham had a major effect on Locke's natural philosophical thinking—an effect that would become evident in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Locke's medical knowledge was put to the test when Ashley's liver infection became life-threatening. Locke coordinated the advice of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading Ashley to undergo surgery then life-threatening in itself to remove the cyst.