How Did John Locke Impact Western Culture

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[25 pts] Question #4: In what ways did the ideas of Locke impact western culture? John Locke’s ideas have impacted western culture by the ideas exemplify the foundation of how the government system in the west, specifically America turn out to be. In 1632, when Locke was born, absolutism is the type of monarchy that England had. Locke opposed the idea of absolutism, believing that all men are equal and should have the freedom to control their actions and properties, however they choose to do so, as long as it’s within the boundary of the law of nature. Despite Locke’s beliefs of this right that people have, he also reasoned that it’s still important to have some sort of regulation for the purpose of maintaining peace and carrying out laws fairly. Therefore, to balance out these two ideas of equal rights and having a fair government, he proposed that people shouldn’t give the government all of …show more content…

They are both defined as an economic system to gained profit. However, mercantilism focused more on the goal of increasing the nation’s wealth by having a favorable balance of trade. An example of something mercantilism look down upon is if country 1 sells fruits to country 2 and country 2 use these fruits to make smoothies that they sell back to country 1, possibly at a higher price. In this scenario being country 1, it will not be a favorable balance of trade to them having more money going into country 2 than themselves. In mercantilism, they encourage the idea of having more of their money stay within their economy than have their citizens become an important consumer in other country’s economy. On the other hand, capitalism supported the idea of having an individual ownership of a property or role. They believe that if you allow a person to do what they have to do in gaining profit for themselves, they will eventually contribute back to the economy and the country as a whole will