John Locke: Influences on American Government John Locke was born in England in 1632. Locke considered becoming a minister, started his career as a doctor, but ended up as a philosopher and political scientist. He had many interests and produced a number of writings that influenced future leaders. One of those leaders was Thomas Jefferson, who helped America gain independence from Britain nearly 150 years after Locke was born. Jefferson studied Locke’s writings, and Locke’s ideas show up in our own Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In arguably his most famous work, The Two Treatises of Government, Locke describes multiple important philosophies he holds in regards to government and citizens of that same government. The quote below describes Locke’s belief in the rights that men are born with. See if you can figure out what Locke is trying to say, and then identify where Locke’s ideas are borrowed and used in the American Declaration of Independence. “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it… no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions… unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another” 1. What is Locke’s law of nature?

2. Can Locke’s rights ever be taken away? If so, when?

Locke also believed a government can only be legitimate, or valid, if it is based on a social contract with citizens. The social contract theory is held in high regard by many philosophes of the enlightenment. In a society bound by this theory, people agree to give up some freedoms if the government agrees to protect everyone’s rights. If the government fails to deliver, however, the people revolt—like the colonists did during the American Revolution. 3. Do you agree with Locke’s belief in the people’s right to revolt? Why or why not?

4. Social Contract Theory also implies the idea of “consent of the governed”. Describe to me below what this idea means.