Why John Locke is the Greatest Philosopher of all Time

Why John Locke is the Greatest Philosopher of all Time

John Locke was a British philosopher and physician who lived from 29th August 1632 to 28th October 1704. He is one of the most outstanding of enlightenment thinkers, who explained many of the ideas that affect human life in today’s society. He is widely known as the father of classical liberalism, because of his emphases on liberty of persons by, restricting the authority of the government Jenkins and John (18). He is also regarded as one the first imperialist in Britain because his pioneer work on imperialism theory, a theory in epistemology that asserts that knowledge comes only from sensory experience. He is equally important when studying the theory of the social contract, which addresses questions of how the society originated and the legitimacy of the authority of state over the individual. It addresses the aspect of natural and legal rights (Jenkins and John 41).

Locke’s works had an immense influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings had a huge influence on enlightenment writers, historians and philosophers like Voltaire and Rousseau, Scottish enlightenment thinkers, and the American revolutionaries. Locke’s works on classical republicanism and liberal theory constitutes the US declaration of independence. Locke influenced Hume, Rousseau, and Kant with his theory of mind, where he defined self through continuity of consciousness. By maintains that, at birth, the mind is blank, people are born without inanimate ideas and that the only determinant of knowledge is experience derived from sense perception. Modern perceptions on identity and the self are greatly influenced by Locke’s works (Jenkins and John 63).

Locke’s liberal, anti...

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...ern to itself as long as the consciousness extends. Locke includes the body in the self, and describes self as being self aware and self reflective and is fixed in the body. Locke argues against Augustinian view of man being originally sinful and the Cartesian who argued that man innately knows logical propositions. According to Locke, human mind is empty at birth and is shaped by experience, Sensation and reflection being the two sources of all ideas. Locke views education to be the determinant of self, people are good or evil, useful or not because of education. Locke also explained that ideas one makes when young are the most important, because they are the foundations of self and we grow up with them. It is from this reasoning that Locke derives the theory of associationism, which has greatly influenced education theory and development of psychology (Locke 7).