JOHN LOCKE

ROVEL EMMANUEL M. QUESADA

BSED SS 1-A
 John Locke’s Biography

 John Locke was an English philosopher. he is

considered the first of the British empiricists. His
ideas had huge influence on the development of
epistemology and political philosophy, and he is
widely regarded as one of the most influential
Enlightenment thinkers.
John Locke’s Early Years

 John Locke was born into a middleclass family on

August 28, 1634, in Somerset, England. His father
worked as an attorney in local government, and he
owned properties that produced a moderate
income. Locke received an extraordinarily diverse
education from early childhood on.
John Locke’s Context

 Locke was born during the twenty-year English Civil War,

which culminated in 1649 with the execution of Charles I
and the dissolution of the House of Lords. He was born in
and grew up in one of the most extraordinary centuries of
English political and intellectual history England then
reinvented himself as a commonwealth where both royalty
and an elected parliament would work together to govern
the country.
 John Locke’s Development
 The seeds of Locke's opinions on religion and government were
planted during his childhood. His father's career had taught him a
respect for the law, and his Puritan upbringing imparted him with
strong religious convictions. A crucial turning point in his
philosophical development was a 1665 trip abroad to Cleves, where
he observed a community of different religious sects living together
in harmony. This experience may have challenged his ideas about
the necessity of state-appointed religion and led to the later writing
of his Letters Concerning Toleration (1689).
 JOHN LOCKE WORKS
 1689 “A letter concerning tolerations”
 1690 “A second letter concerning tolerations”
 1692 “A third letter for tolerations”
 1689 “ Two treatises of government”
 1690 “ An essay concerning human understanding”
 1693 “Some thoughts concerning education”
 1695 “The reasonableness of Christianity, as delivered in the
scriptures”
 1695 “The reasonableness of Christianity”
 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.
JOHN LOCKE

He is famous for the term

‘tabula rasa’
THANK YOU!
ROVEL EMMANUEL M. QUESADA