John Locke FRS (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704), widely known as the Father of Classical Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.
Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate, that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception.
“But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression”
~ John Locke
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Comments: 15
It does, indeed, require both right and left wings to fly with stability. We very much need a diversity of opinion and concerns to maintain ourselves.
They will do whatever their big money backers tell them to do. Unless those big money boys come to their senses and realize how their policies will bring disaster to them selves we can expect no change.
I cannot deny that their fear of Obama's policies is not good sense. I don't agree with all of them myself. Plus, these same big money interests have considerable influence on the Administration so that fear is quite disproportionate.
In the state of nature
Laws are enforced by
necessity, not choice
The Contract plainly reads
"Do what you will --
and see where that gets you."
(I believe that Locke and also some of our founding fathers may have read the works of Confucius, by the way. I think he was the first to state that the power of a government should come from the consent of the governed).