John Locke and the Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a time of new thinking and opporunities for the people of Europe, especially France, where the most Enlightenment activity took place. New governments were thought up by the people themselves, and citizens planned to overthrow the current King of France, King Louis XVI (the sixteenth).

John Locke was a very important and influential Enlightenment thinker. His modern view of modern nature included the beliefs that everyone was born equal, everyone should be free, and that everyone had a natural ability to rule themselves, and should never be under the rule of a monarch. He worked hard to make these ideas known and notions possible.

John Locke's ideas heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Jefferson used Locke's ideas of freedom and equality. Jefferson wrote about three unalienable rights: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

According to the Declaration of Independence, the government comes from and gets it power from the people. If the people are not happy with their government, or they do not feel safe, they have the right to overthrow it, abolish it, or alter it, and to institute a new government.