Locke was born in Wrington in Somerset County of Britain. After attending Oxford University, Locke began to tutor the family of a very prominent man, Anthony Ashley Cooper, who eventually became the King of England. While Cooper was on the throne, Locke experienced power as well, but when Cooper was overthrown, Locke fled to mainland Europe. Running to and fro became the norm for Locke as political atmospheres and alliances constantly changed in Britain. .
When Locke finally settled down in Oates in Essex County, political and scholarly ties helped make him one of the most influential men of the 17th century. It was in Oates as well that Locke began writing philosophy. LOCKE'S WRITING Locke is best known for his Essay Concerning Human Understanding(1690). On the more political side of things, Locke published Two Treatises of Government(1690).
EMPIRICISM Locke was the founder of a group of philosophers whose philosophy came to be known as British Empiricism. Empiricism is basically the belief that we must use our senses for philosophy. .
Empiricists believed that one had to use his or her senses in acquiring information, and therefore could not use only reason. Locke believed that when we are born, our mind is a clean slate of sorts, and that the only way to add to this slate was to acquire ideas from sensual experience. .
Locke said that we do not experience a whole object at once, such as an apple. Instead, we experience one aspect of the apple at a time, ranging from taste to color to weight. Our mind then compiles all these individual sensations, and produces a complex idea, which is our idea of an apple. .
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY In Two Treatises of Government Locke said that the state exists to preserve the natural rights of its citizens. Therefore, he said that if a government fails in that task, citizens should rebel against it. Locke thought that the state of nature (anarchy) was a happy and tolerant state.
