JOHN LOCKE

1634-1704
John Locke's Early Life
and Education
John Locke was born in Wrington,
Somerset, on Aug. 29, 1632.

The father, also named John Locke, was

a devout, even-tempered man.

Locke was educated at Westminster

School and Oxford.
He was interested in meteorology and the
experimental sciences, especially chemistry.

He turned to medicine and became known

as one of the most skilled practitioners of his
day.

He graduated with a bachelor’s of medicine

in 1674.

He was an associate of Robert Hooke,

Robert Boyle and other leading Oxford
scientists.
 John Locke and the Earl of
Shaftesbury
In 1667 Locke became confidential secretary
and personal physician to Anthony Ashley
Cooper, later lord chancellor and the first earl of
Shaftesbury.
 He supervised a dangerous liver
operation on Shaftesbury that likely
saved his patron’s life.

Shaftesbury was indicted for high

treason. He was acquitted, but Locke
was suspected of disloyalty.

In 1683, he left England for Holland

and returned only after the revolution of
1688.
n Locke's Publications and Final Ye
Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding"
(1689) outlined a theory of human knowledge, identity
and selfhood.
 An Empirical Theory of
Knowledge
For Locke, all knowledge comes exclusively
through experience.

He argues that at birth the mind is a tabula

rasa, or blank slate, that humans fill with ideas
as they experience the world through the five
senses.

Locke defines knowledge as the connection

and agreement, or disagreement and
repugnancy, of the ideas humans form.
The "Two Treatises of Government" (1690)
offered political theories developed and refined
by Locke during his years at Shaftesbury's side.

In his "Thoughts Concerning Education" (1693),

Locke argued for a broadened syllabus and
better treatment of students—ideas that were an
enormous influence on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's
novel "Emile" (1762).

In three "Letters Concerning Toleration"

(1689-92), Locke suggested that governments
should respect freedom of religion except when
the dissenting belief was a threat to public
order.
Locke spent his final 14 years in Essex
at the home of Sir Francis Masham and
his wife, the philosopher Lady Damaris
Cudworth Masham. He died there on
October 24, 1704, as Lady Damaris read
to him from the Psalms.

Locke never married nor had a children.

 Locke’s other
themes,
arguments and
ideas
The moral role of government

Locke was very critical of the British

Monarchy

Locke believed that Government was

needed to protect everyone's natural rights.

The reason why men enter into society is

the preservation of their property.
Locke uses a state of nature to explain what life would be
like without a Government

“ALL MEN ARE LIABLE TO ERROR; AND MOST MEN ARE,

IN MANY POINTS, BY PASSION OR INTEREST, UNDER
TEMPTATION TO IT.”

What will happen

without a government?

LOOTING
A Natural Foundation of Reason
Locke argues that God gave us our
capacity for reason to aid us in the search
for truth.

God created in us a natural aversion to

misery and a desire for happiness.

Locke’s belief in separation of church and

state.
Political leaders do not have the right
to impose beliefs on people.

Locke insists that if men were to follow

the government blindly, they would be
surrendering their own reason and thus
violating God’s law, or natural law.
 The Right to Private
Property
The right to private property is the cornerstone
of Locke’s political theory, encapsulating how
each man relates to God and to other men.

Locke explains that man originally exists in a

state of nature in which he need answer only to
the laws of nature.
 The beginnings of a
modern outlook

Locke has been described as having

the first modern mind.

Locke believed that languages should

be learned not via grammar but through
practice and example.