Should rule be based on consent as Locke demands?
Write clear, sharp, short sentences and move steadily through the argument. Do read the questions carefully!
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Use one of these questions to write an essay on: Should rule be based on consent as Locke demands?
John Locke (1632-1704) is among the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarchy. He argued that people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society. Consent theories of political obligation have long enjoyed favor among the friends of freedom. And none had exceeded the currency of Locke`s theory as expressed in the Second Treatise. Indeed, whatever lustre has been lost from Locke`s ideas in European eyes, many Americans to this day attest wittingly or unwittingly to the influence of Locke in their political thinking.
