https://padlet.com/sherrerjd/84lqn54xoutcgydo Made with 100%, Grade A, certified awesomeness. en-us 2020-09-08 19:46:46 UTC 2020-09-15 19:51:53 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/262e.png sherrerjd https://padlet.com/sherrerjd/84lqn54xoutcgydo/wish/729046792  John Locke was born August 29, 1632, in the small town of Wrighton, Somerset, England to John Locke, Sr. and Agnes Keene and died October 28 (my birthday), 1704. His brothers were Peter and Thomas Locke. Locke, Sr. became a Parliamentarian commander during the English Civil Wars of the 1640s. After serving as a student in the Westminster School (beginning his studies there in 1646 and getting his King's Scholar in 1650), Locke became a student-turned-lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied logic, classics, metaphysics, and medicine. He got his bachelor's degree in 1655 and his master's degree in 1658. (Interestingly, the King's Scholar he obtained at Westminster was responsible for getting him into Christ Church in the first place.) In 1666, he met Anthony Ashley Cooper, aka the first Earl of Shaftesbury. Cooper was so impressed by Locke when they first met that a year later, he asked Locke to become his own personal physician. Interestingly enough, Locke had not received his medical degree yet; he would gain his bachelor of medicine degree in 1674. 

When Shaftesbury retreated to Holland in 1682 as he schemed to organize an armed resistance movement against King James II, Locke followed suit in 1683. After they both returned to England after King William III had been made king by the Glorious Revolution, Locke began writing the books that would make him a household name for generations. The "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1689) argued that humans were not born with knowledge of things like religion, but rather gained knowledge via personal experience. The "Two Treatises of Government" (1690) outlined that kings were NOT created by God, but rather established agreements with their citizens and thus, if the king violated the rights of the people, they had a right to oust him and establish a new society. The three "Letters Concerning Toleration" (!689-1692) said that freedom of religion should be acknowledged and upheld by the government, and in his "Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), Locke called for an broadened curriculum and fairer treatment of students. 

On October 24, 1704, while being read to from the Psalms by Lady Damaris Cudworth Masham, wife of Sir Francis Masham, at their home in Essex, where Locke had lived for the last 14 years of his life, Locke died. However, he will forever be remembered as an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion. We see these same principles in our Constitution. Fun Fact: Locke agreed with Thomas Hobbes, who was in favor of absolute monarchy, about the barbaric pre-civilization condition of man, which Hobbes thought could only be brought to an end via a social contract. Locke, however, believed that people had certain rights rights that no one could ever take away, such as freedom of speech, the right to property, and freedom of religion and of thought. The king could not do whatever he pleased, as Hobbes had said, but should exist only to administer and respect the rights of the people. Also, the social contract was an agreement between the people and a ruler, like a king or queen, not simply an agreement between the people. 

Locke's belief in rights to "life, liberty and property" would later inspire the Founding Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, in various ways while they were looking for guidance when attempting to found the US Government:
The Letters Concerning Toleration would inspire separation of church and state, the Thoughts Concerning Education inspired the school system of the US, and perhaps most importantly, the Two Treatises of Government inspired US democracy and our governmental structure overall. Locke defined property as the fruit of one's toiling; this would be essential in the foundation of socialism and capitalism. Thomas Jefferson was inspired by Locke's Two Treatises of Government when writing the Declaration of Independence.]]> 2020-09-08 20:01:21 UTC https://padlet.com/sherrerjd/84lqn54xoutcgydo/wish/729046792 sherrerjd https://padlet.com/sherrerjd/84lqn54xoutcgydo/wish/741187951 2020-09-12 19:14:01 UTC https://padlet.com/sherrerjd/84lqn54xoutcgydo/wish/741187951 sherrerjd https://padlet.com/sherrerjd/84lqn54xoutcgydo/wish/741198624 2020-09-12 19:31:34 UTC https://padlet.com/sherrerjd/84lqn54xoutcgydo/wish/741198624