The Writings of John Locke

Paper Summary:

The paper reviews the three foundational principles associated with John Locke and his works; social contract theory, natural rights theory and Locke's express concerns regarding the need for the separation of religion and state. The paper believes that Locke is one of the most influential thinkers of his day and his legacy is significant in state building as well as in other areas of thought and action among men in civil society.

Outline:
Social Contract Theory
Natural Rights Theory
Separation of Religion and State
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Locke's ideas were not necessarily independent to other ideas of the time his name as become synonymous with both the term social contract theory and natural rights theory. His Second Treatise on Government has become the seminal work of the period regarding the impetus for the institutional adoption and changes that are indicative of the development of the US government. According to Locke the development of government was in many ways a positive outgrowth of social situations that furthered the success of nation and individual as a result of the protections and rights that the nation afforded the individual, in addition to those he or she was born with. For the most part there is a rather simple way to explain Locke's arguments; his natural rights theory claimed that there are rights which the individual is born with and therefore has the right to defend and uphold, his social contract theory on the other hand claims that the individual came together in a group and decided that the natural order was not everything he needed and therefore he ceded some of his rights to a government."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Arneil, Barbara. John Locke and America: The Defence of English Colonialism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
• Brown, Gillian. The Consent of the Governed: The Lockean Legacy in Early American Culture. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press. 2001.
• Dunn, John. The Political Thought of John Locke: An Historical Accountof the Argument of the 'Two Treatises of Government' London: CambridgeUniv. Press, 2006.
• Dunning, William A. A History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu. New York: Macmillan Co., 1905.
• Forster, Greg. John Locke's Politics of Moral Consensus. Cambridge [UK]: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005.

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