Locke's Views Concerning Religion example essay topic

John Locke John Locke was someone that was more than just an ordinary man, He could be considered one of the forefathers of democracy, was a great philosopher. He was brought up in a very unique home with many awkward and unusual topics brought up during a family discussion. Locke had wide variety of political and religious views. Locke also expressed many views on education. He had many political and social philosophies. John Locke was born at Wrington Somerset, England.

This was a small town south of Bristol. Locke's father was a puritan attorney and clerk to a justice of peace in Wrington Somerset. His father's discipline to the young philosopher John Locke was very strict. This helped John later in life disciplining him self to his essays and his thoughts.

But as a child raised in a bookish home, he had received a good private education before entering school. His family was visited by very wealthy and influential people. These influential visitors would challenge Locke's mind and have him express is feelings on certain topics at a very young age. This I believe helped Locke in his future in philosophy and his writings. In the fall of 1647 John was admitted to a tough course of studies under the school's headmaster, Dr. Richmond Busby.

This was Locke's first enrollment at a school away from his home. This experience would be a major building blocks for his career. During his schooling he was educated in Doctrines of Political Liberty. This was one of the topics in the Locke's home when he wasn't at school. John's father was also a political philosopher. He loved to go into great detail about society's state of mind by the way they elect their government representatives.

As you can see the Locke were every well educated and could grasp many difficult concepts. But these were very common subjects in the Locke's household. Locke graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in February of 1656 and continued his residency at Oxford University for his masters degree. His further studies were in the field of Aristotelian Logic, language, and Metaphysics. His program included history, astronomy, and natural philosophy. Education was very important to Locke.

He was very determined in his school work through out his life. If he couldn't understand something in school, He tried very hard to understand it. Locke's early contact with experimental science helped form his attitudes toward his questions of philosophy, politics, medicine, education, and religion. Locke attend medical lectures on a regular basis and became a student of Robert Boyle who is the "father of modern chemistry". Holland provided him with a lot of encouragement for his many ideas of popular sovereignty and religious freedom. Locke had many views of both political and religious.

These were his most famous areas for his thoughts and philosophies. Locke was very famous for his thoughts throughout history in many countries. He was one of the first people that thought that Religion and state should be separated. Locke published anonymously his two treaties of civil government in 1690. He had worked on this for many years. The first treaty attacked on views expressed in "Sir Robert Filmer Patriarch".

The second treaty takes Locke's own positive contribution to political philosophy. It was not really uncommon for Locke to publish his works anonymously. Locke like to keep his works secretive. But his political views in his time could have gotten him sentenced to death. Locke went to major extremes as to use invisible ink. One of Locke major views was that Religion and government should be separated.

He thought they should be separated because that the government interferes to much with religion. He also believes that the government takes the laws of the church into their own hands and make what they think is morally and politically correct. Locke in general was a very easy going guy, yet a firm person in his beliefs. He loved practically all children.

He greatly enjoyed being a guardian and tutor to the children of his friends. Locke was very devout Christian. He tried to stress to his pupils how important God was in their lives. He taught that you should not be very fond of people who accept religious doctrine on blind faith. He also stressed his concern for discovering truth was put truth ahead of any desire for personal fame or reputation. Locke's views concerning religion are expressed mostly in the essay and in the Reasonableness of Christianity which was published in 1695.

Lock once said, "religious belief that rests merely on authority has an uncertain foundation". This means that when a religion gives you orders to do something and you can't answer why. The religion becomes very shaky and start to go away from it. Locke's belief in the existence of god is argumentative. He believes that reason will convince any intelligent person that God must exist as a first cause. In The Essay he tries to demonstrate this, by saying, "though God has given us no innate ideas of himself".

Locke takes Gods existence to be "the most obvious truth reason discovers". But scholars agree that Locks reasonableness of Christianity represents an idea to the necessity of religion as a guide for the common people. Locke reduces Christianity to a very simple reasonable religion. The fundamentals of this idea are that people believe in Jesus Christ the Messiah, and that they live by the Christian codes based on God's revelation. Locke also argues his strong belief that religion should be separated from state. Locke's works do not include a complex article on ethics.

In the essay he expresses confidence that a deductive science of ethics. His two most different theories are rationalism and hedonism. Rationalism are the view that reason alone is sufficient to determine the right good or just. And hedonism is the view that, "The good is whatever produces or tends to produce pleasure". According to Locke's theory, moral value is resolved by our feelings of pleasure and pain. Ethics is capable of demonstration, because moral principles are composed by simple ideas that are brought together without any regard to nature.

Through out Locke's total career he does not tell us what is particular actions we make are wrong or what actions in our lives are right. Locke also said that", a person or group of people desire something does not make the action or object in question good". Locke also said, "It seems that it is impossible to ever pronounce an action is good or bad on sensual grounds. Since all the consequences of the act cannot be calculated". Locke will note five lasting pleasures through out his whole career. These pleasures are health, a good name, knowledge, doing good, and eternal paradise.

Locke's views on education, political and social philosophy was very great in his whole career. According to Locke most people neglect their understanding and consequently fall short of what they could attain in a life time. Locke's two articles on civil government first appeared to the public anonymously in 1690. Only in his will did Locke acknowledge authorship of the works he had written.

It is generally assumed that the first article was written in the 1685 and the second in 1698. It cannot be persuaded with the notion of the two articles being separate discourses written at different times. It is convincing to view the first article as an answer to Filmer. Because Cranston notes, "at the level of practical politics hobbes did not have a fraction of the importance as Filmer had".

In order to justify the invitation to William, Locke felt that it was an essay to re flute the amendment that argues that appear in "The Patriarch". Hobbes argues as much as Filmer does that absolute power must be vested in a monarch who, for the general good of all the people must be a oppressor. The king is simply not answerable to anyone. This conclusion is read by making sure any questions concerning the nature of human beings. Locke's Social and political philosophy is based upon certain assumptions concerning the origin of government.

The primitive condition of human beings and the steps by which civil society was established. According to Locke people live in a state of prior to the formation of the government. Locke insists that people are naturally equal in the sense that no one has natural jurisdiction over others. Locke's description of the state of nature was an historical account of how political society developed. Locke describes the chief of civil society as, First, the preservation of the property and second, the provision of a system of justice. Locke had very many elaborate views on many topics during his life time.

As you can see one of the substantial views that affects our country today is that religion and state should be separated. Maybe if it wasn't for Locke we our government might not exist for his influential thinking. To me John Locke was very important in our history. He had many other views that has effected this world and country. But over all I experienced many things will researching this report and writing it. When I first started out I had no idea who John Locke was, but now I know how much he has effected history in a major way.

But by doing this report made me think of how one persons opinion can change the entire way a nation can change their views.

Bibliography

Squadrito, Kathleen John Locke, T wayne Publishers 1979 Jenkins, John Understanding Locke, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press 1983 Eisenach, Eldon Two Worlds of Liberalism, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press 1981 Riv itch, Dain e and Thernstorm, Abigail The Democracy reader, New York, Harpercollins publishers 1992 pg 31-39 Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 97, 1993-1996.