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John Locke Research Paper

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An understanding of John Locke’s philosophy is foundational to the understanding of the popular American philosophical thought — his works Two Treatises of American Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding are two of the most influential works in regards to popular western philosophy. However, this fact is not meant to imply that Locke’s ideas are more correct than that of his peers — rather, Locke’s ideas are more important than that of his peers because of both the time period in which he published his work as well as the sheer amount of people his work influenced. Again, that is not to say that Locke’s ideas are perfect or infallible. Locke’s ideas, especially when explored in the context of fundamentalism, are fallible not …show more content…

Because of this, Hobbes believed that a government should be created to control these innate impulses. Locke took this same idea and flipped it on its head; Locke believed that people aren’t innately selfish, instead humans aren’t innately anything. Humans are born with a blank mental slate, otherwise known as the tabula rosa or blank white page. Like Hobbes, Locke took that same idea and applied it to his own civics framework — Locke believed that the government should function for the people and be ruled by the …show more content…

By definition, each quale (s.) is unique. While Locke may not use this exact term, he brings up the concept frequently, especially in his Inverted Spectrum problem.
Memory Locke’s theory of self is contingent on his idea of memory. Essentially, each individual’s qualia are compounded to more complex experiences, and Locke believes this to be the root of the self. This continuation of memory is one of the most important parts of Locke’s theory, and the synthesis of his theory on memory into his theory of self was one of the more groundbreaking achievements in Locke’s philosophy. Self Locke’s “self” is that of complete self-determination. As Locke sees it, there is no innate understanding -- instead, Locke believes in the previously defined tabula rosa, or a mental blank slate at birth. Furthermore, Locke believes in the continuation of memory; that is to say, simply, Locke believes that compounded memories are what constitute the self, rather than that of predetermination or innate

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Racial asciption is defined in the book as the operations that act as the backdrop to social interactions. People feel the need to categorize a person into a certain race, inorder to try to predict what to expect from strange situations or strangers. At Metro2 Skin color was the primarcy determinant used by teachers and other students to determine what race they believed aanother student was as well as physical characteristics, followed by the language they spoke. However other ellements also layed a role in dracial atribution of the student, including their Name, culture, and socioleconomic staus. The racially coded space in school referes to the places and ways in which stdents of different races hang ut and interact with other students.

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These ideas leading from Sir Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes. The ideas of John Locke also coincide with the empiricist view that there are simple ideas that are from sensory qualities and complex ideas coming from several simple ideas. This could mean to say that they were atomists because atomism is reducing complexity to its simplest basic elements. Which is the assumption of many ideas for psychology for example John Watson’s behaviorism. Locke also had a view of empiricist philosophy because he had the idea that those who have different experiences view the world differently.

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The historical development of the world from 1690 to 1830 wouldn’t be what it was if it weren’t for John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government. Locke’s Second Treatise not only sparked individualism, but also revolutions, and was a guide to the creations of declarations around the world. Two main revolutions and declarations that Locke’s ideas inspired were the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

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Additionally, his view of equality makes a better case based on the fact that it was not inadequate to the political realm. Locke also emphasized on religious toleration except atheism. Moreover, he also supported the general toleration of religious beliefs and at the same time remained pessimistic with the ex-communication of non-believers. Locke's political and religious understanding of life played an essential role in influencing his understanding of equality (Broers 1). In this case, these things put in the picture his moral code and also give details of the seemingly opposing ideas of his thinking.

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War is hell. You can’t photograph a flying bullet; but you can’t capture genuine fear. (Horst Fass) Tim O’brien is the author of the short story “Ambush”, written in 1990. Tim is the narrator of the story who recounts an incident of war. When Tim’s nine year old daughter asks him why he keeps writing stories about war, and if he has ever killed a man before.

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As a matter of fact, when writing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson incorporated several of Locke’s political philosophies. A prime example of this is when it talks about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; comparatively, these words are lifted almost verbatim from Locke’s stances. Without Locke and his Enlightenment ideals, the American government system would look incredibly

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767 Words | 4 Pages

Locke’s ideas from the Two Treatises of Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, were based upon the natural rights where power comes from the people. Both of his pieces contributed to revolutions, most importantly the American Revolution as power from monarchies was removed and democracies were created. Allowed for limited government power and all obligations were to the citizens. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding basis was on how the knowledge existence of God, certain moral truths, and laws of logic or mathematics pertained to the natural rights of

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487 Words | 2 Pages

Locke was a believer in constitutionalism and he opposed the concept of absolutism. He would not be pleased if the government had tremendous amounts of power and legal authority. Rather, he believed that the power of the government to interfere with legal enforcement should be limited as humans would by natural instinct, do good for each other. He believed in the concept of tabula rasa or blank slate to describe that humans are born into the world innocent of all things wrong and evil. The state of nature, devoid of codified laws, as described by Locke was not one of evil, torment, and cutthroat survival; rather it was a state in which humans would follow the natural law of reason that would prevent them from bringing harm upon the life, liberty, and property of their fellow humans.

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These ideas were expressed in his “Tabula Rasa Theory of Human Behavior”. In his writing, Locke says,”Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas—How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience.”

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In the article,” John Locke: Natural Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property” written by Jim Powell, discusses how Locke’s writings inspired the American Revolution, as well as, his view of the government. Locke viewed that the government is ethically required to serve people, namely by protecting life, liberty, and property. He favored the rights of an American citizen. His political view he found in society was determined to be equal, but understandably turned out to be much overwhelming, since the government was in power making all the decisions. Additionally, Locke believed in a government by law since he opposed dictatorship.

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John Locke is an enlightened political philosopher whose explanations to his ideas remains profoundly influential. Locke believes people should have the right to do anything they want without the government enforcing them to do a task. In The Second Treatise, Locke discusses some vital concepts of his thinking, beginning with a discussion of the State of Nature. He explains that humans move from a state of nature characterized by perfect freedom and are governed by reason to a civil government in which the authority is vested in a legislative and executive power. In the State of Nature, men are born equal, to have perfect liberty to maintain.

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Interesting thread, "tabula rasa is the latin term for a cleaned tablet, one that has been erased and is ready for new marks" (Argumentation and Advocacy, 1994). John Locke is one of the most influential philosophers of modern times and his complete comprehension concern human understanding in the 20th century. Either way, John Locke was a philosopher who did not care for the Cartesian theory that soul accounts for personal identity, that is where empty mind a tabula rasa which is shaped by experience and sensations and reflections being that of the two ideas. Either way, the third term between soul and body that John Locke thought would be meditation would be the brain with consciousness (Finan, 2015 p. 30). The brain is that of the body

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1970 Words | 8 Pages

I would even go so far as to say that memory and the ability to recall accurately past actions is a key condition for personal identity. Once again, the unreliability exposed as such an accurate recollection of every detail is simply impossible. By basing our consciousness on something that is subject to several forces of change means that Locke claims that our consciousness is in itself unstable and constantly undergoing change. While this may be true, this means that we will have no stable personal identity thereby making consciousness unreliable. Early on in the chapter, Locke says that if you add or remove a particle from a whole the whole is no longer the same.

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In contrast, Locke believes, that knowledge can only have a high degree of certainty but cannot be certain. Since he does not focus much on certainty in his works, he believes that perception can play a major part in the process of knowledge. He further reiterates that knowledge is based on observations and senses. According to his him, ideas come from reflection and sensation while knowledge is founded on experience In summary, I have covered the respective positions and views that both Locke and Descartes hold in respect with self-identity and consciousness.

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Locke also asserted that humans are blank states at birth. According to him, “All ideas come from sensation or reflection. Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas” (Locke, 1690, p. 96). However, Baillargeon’s research described earlier in the paper showed that infants possess certain knowledge from birth, such as the principle of persistence. Also, Locke’s claim fell into contradiction later in his paper.

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