About
John Locke, born 29 August 1632 in Wrington, Somerset, and died 28 October 1704 in High Laver, Essex, was an English philosopher. Educated at Oxford, he practiced medicine and became the protégé of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. Exiled in the Netherlands from 1683 to 1688, he published his major works after the Glorious Revolution: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), which founded empiricism by arguing the mind is a blank slate, and Two Treatises of Government (1690), which refuted divine right and defended natural rights, consent of the governed, and the right of revolution.
Major works
- A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)essay
- Two Treatises of Government (1690)political treatise
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)philosophical essay
- Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)educational treatise
- The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695)theological treatise
Key milestones
- 1668Elected Fellow of the Royal Society and supervised a life-saving operation on his patron, the Earl of Shaftesbury.
- 1683Exiled to the Netherlands under suspicion of involvement in the Rye House Plot.
- 1690Publishes his two major works, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government.
Themes
EmpiricismPolitical liberalismNatural rightsSocial contractReligious toleration
Sources: britannica.com · iep.utm.edu · rep.routledge.com