John Locke

Crystal Sanchez

Mr. Fitz

A. P. Euro/Per. 6

December 1 2005

The 17th century in England was a time of war, taxes, religious intolerance, and political mischief. At the time there was a conflict between Crown and Parliament and the conflicts between Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics. With the defeat of Charles I in 1649 there began a great experiment in governmental institutions including the abolishment of the monarchy, the house of the Lords and ht Anglican Church, and the establishment of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate in the 1650s. After these events England was declared a common wealth. Throughout the 17th century, many of the foremost religious writers had clung to the conviction that God had imprinted on the mind of man certain indelible truths, and that of these ideas the assurance of God's own existence was at once the clearest and the most important. (G.R. Cragg, p.115)

John Locke was born August 29, 1632 into Protestant parents. Locke's father was a lawyer who served in Cavalry Company on the Puritan side in the early stages of the English civil war (http://www.panix.com). Locke was a boy when the civil war broke out (1640s). Locke was a king scholar which were a group of boys who had the privilege of living in the school and who received a stipend for two or three years before standing to election for either Christ church, Oxford or Trinity College Cambridge. Locke was sixteen years old and was attending Westminster when Charles I was executed. From Westminster Locke attended Oxford at the age of twenty (http://panix.com). The importance of some thinkers is even greater than the intrinsic value of what they have to say. (G. R. Cragg, p.114). Locke characterized the view of his own age and predicted the thought of the succeeding period. The choice of Locke's influence was much wider than the circle usually affected by the writings of philosophers. He created a new mentality among intelligent people. He offered, a satisfying interpretation of the workings of the human mind, and provided a framework inside which the ordinary person's thinking could be done. Opposition to authoritarianism characterizes much Of Locke's work. This opposition, which characterized Locke's work, is on the level of the individual person and on the level of institutions like church and government. For the individual Locke wanted us to use reason to search after truth rather than to simply accept what others thought. What Locke didn't want is for us to be driven by superstition and authority. Sometimes one gets self-conscience and does what others tell them to, only because it is right or moral to do. In the grand scheme of things Locke wanted us to proportion agreements to propositions to the evidence for them. The positive side of Locke's anti-authoritarianism is that he believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth, and determining the legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society both in respect to its material and spiritual life (http://stanford.edu/entries/locke/).

Locke wrote about psychology, and religious toleration. In 1679, the situation of England was highly volatile, because of this background Locke wrote his most famous works, the two treatises of government (http://dicoverjohnlocke.com/). After the reign of Charles II and James II there was a new way of doing things. A progressive way, a way more tolerant of religious differences than before. It was also a way in which people's rights were respected more. Symptoms of this were the Bill of rights 1689 and the abolition of pre-republican censorship in 1695(in which Locke himself played a part in drafting parliamentary arguments)(http://discoverjohnlocke.com/). John Locke helped start the philosophical movement. That movement was known as the Enlightenment of