How Did John Locke's View Of Government

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For the past decades in Europe, the most common form of government was a monarchy and all the power was in the hands of either one or a couple people. During the time of the monarchies, the Enlightenment period took place and this was when many philosophers would begin to question the government. An enlightenment thinker during this time who challenged the government and suggested better ones was an England born man by the name of John Locke. Locke was interested in a type of government where power was separated and wanted the principles of government to ensure the liberty of the individual. Locke’s beliefs would change the way that people would think a government should be run, and the people wanted rights and freedom. Locke’s thoughts on …show more content…

Locke believed that all men were created equally and that they are born with their own rights. The belief of this made people question the government because the government treated everyone differently and for the most part it wasn’t fair so when Locke challenged the government and had reason, it sparked everyone. John Locke made them believe that God had made them all equally and subject to the monarch. He also had a ‘social contract’ theory that when the government fails to secure their natural rights, citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey, and change the leadership through elections. Another one of his main ideas is that philosophy should be questioned by reason. This theory would change how everything would be viewed and it changed the classical traditions of education. John composed ‘An Essay Concerning Human Understanding’ which took on the task of examining the nature of human knowledge. Locke wanted people to subject to the monarch by saying that all men are equal and should have rights. Locke changed the way that both science and government was viewed by making people question using