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How Did John Locke Influence The Constitution

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The U.S. Constitution founded America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its people. It was created and structured around the idea of freedom which was so important to the Founding Fathers who wanted a country that would be nothing like Britain. The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, presided over by George Washington (History.com, 2009). John Locke was a very important and influential philosopher. The Founding Fathers of the Constitution drew heavily on his ideas. Another influence on the constitution was Thomas Hobbes even though his ideas were not to be acknowledged in the final making of the constitution. The last but not least big influence upon the constitution was the Magna Carta. John Lock John Locke had believed that every man should have a set of inalienable rights no matter what ethnicity or religion and the founding fathers strongly agreed so they heard him out pleased with his passion and dedication to create the best country possible. They later decided to actually create the constitution based off of those beliefs. John Locke had also published a piece called“Second Treatise of Government” “In this piece Locke identified the basis of a legitimate government. According to Locke, a …show more content…

“In 1651, Hobbes wrote one of the most influential philosophical treatises in human history, Leviathan or the Matter Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. Like his rival, John Locke, Hobbes posited that in a state of nature men and women were free to pursue and defend their own interests, which resulted in a state of war in which “the life of man” was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”(“Philosopher who influenced the Founding Fathers and the First Principles,”

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