John Locke

John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician whose writings helped shape the Enlightenment and modern liberal thought. Born in a modest thatched cottage in Wrington, Somerset, he was the son of a parish clerk and a Puritan mother, and he entered Westminster School on the patronage of the MP Alexander Popham before matriculating at Christ Church, Oxford in 1652. Although initially dissatisfied with the classical curriculum, Locke pursued studies in medicine, earning a BA in 1656, an MA in 1658, and a bachelor of medicine in 1675, during which time he formed lasting friendships with scientists such as Robert Boyle and Thomas Sydenham. His friendship with the future Earl of Shaftesbury opened doors to political service, leading to appointments as Secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations (1667‑1674) and Secretary to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, experiences that informed his later economic and colonial writings. Locke’s most influential works—An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Two Treatises of Government (1689/90), and A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)—argued for the mind as a tabula rasa, for natural rights to life, liberty and property, and for the separation of church and state, ideas that resonated in the American Revolution and the drafting of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. His theory of property, based on labour mixed with nature, and his social‑contract arguments against absolute monarchy provided a philosophical foundation for constitutional government and the principle of consent of the governed. Despite his profound impact, Locke never married, living much of his later life at the country house of Lady Masham in High Laver, Essex, where he died in 1704 and was buried in the local churchyard. Scholars continue to study his extensive library of over three thousand volumes, his meticulous commonplace books, and his correspondence, which reveal a mind deeply engaged with the scientific, theological, and political debates of his era. Today, Locke is celebrated as the “father of liberalism,” a title reflected in his enduring influence on modern political philosophy, education theory, and the development of empirical epistemology.