How Did John Locke Contribute To The American Revolution

The Indelible Man
Our Earth has been the home to a multitude of great thinkers. These thinkers were scattered throughout the generations from the Romans all the way to the 20th century; however, the time period with the most philosophers was the Enlightenment Age. During this time there were many thinkers such as Voltaire and Thomas Hobbes. One thinker in particular who contributed a great deal to history was John Locke. His work is still influencing the lives of people across the world 300 years later. He rethought the moral role of government, created a new theory of knowledge, introduced the use of reason, and reminded people of their natural rights. The combination of these four things made him the single most influential philosopher
Locke believed that knowledge was only gained through worldliness. He told people that experiences caused them to learn. One famous this he argued is that, “at birth the mind is a tabula rasa”3. Tabula rasa translates to “clean slate”. Essentially, everyone is born without knowledge and over time they become wiser and smarter. This was revolutionary because previously no one had every stopped to think about how knowledge was gained other than schooling. Locke was the first to think that people were born without any knowledge. He emphasized the five senses as well. Humans fill their clean slate with ideas and experience in the world through their five senses. There are many varying definitions of knowledge, but John Locke is the most accurate. Locke defines knowledge as “the connection and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy, of the ideas humans form”4. Since our knowledge is derived from our experiences, it means our knowledge is limited. Not everyone can know everything since not one single person can experience everything this earth has to offer in one lifetime. This also means that everyone’s knowledge varies and no two people have the same exact knowledge since everyone’s experiences are different. Locke also notes that there is a great deal of unknown on this world and there always will be. This observation still is true today because there is a great deal of uncertainty in today’s society. He is also still influential because he taught us to question those uncertain areas. As a continuation, he agrees that there are certain things that we are certain of. One example that Locke uses is the certainty of our own existence and the existence of God even tough we may not fully comprehend who or what he was5. Another very complex theory that he had relating to the idea of knowledge was our ideas are related to reality. He said that, “our ideas