John Locke's Beliefs On Law

John Locke was a physician and a philosopher in the 17th and early 18th century. He is considered one of the fathers of classical liberalism and has composed some of the most influential political philosophy ever written. Locke was born to a puritan couple in the town of Wrington, Somerset, England. His father, who was also named John Locke, was a country lawyer. Locke was given an exceptional education due to his father’s well built network within the English government. As a student, he had an avid interest in logic, metaphysics, and medicine. Locke had earned a bachelor’s degree in medicine in 1674. He later pursued a career in the same field and became the personal physician of Earl Shaftsbury. Locke’s thoughts on politics were heavily

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. This was his idea of the social contract. The right to life, liberty and property was a major advancement found in law and is still used today within our own Charter as Section 7. Although Locke did not want an all powerful government, he believed in the necessity of government interference when it came to protecting the citizens since he believed that when the state of nature was broken, humans would fall into a state of war until the problem that started the state of war was rectified and to that end humans must have some form of