Political philosophy of John Locke

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the 17th and 18th Centuries, grade: 1,0, Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences, course: Political Philosophy, language: English, abstract: Today in most western countries the political structure is characterized by a democratic system and the separation of powers. Moreover individual liberty and property rights are for most western states self-evident qualities. But to achieve these political modern comforts it took a long time of development. In this connection one of the key pathfinders and masterminds for democratic system was John Locke. John Locke's philosophical works can be seen as a part of the Enlightenment.More and more thinkers examined the nature of existence, the way of thinking, the justification of religion and political power. There were different streams in arguing and different point of views. In this connection John Locke is considered one of the founders of the British Empiricists and also a very important representative and developer of the Social Contract Theory. His ideas had huge influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced many Enlightenment philosophers, as well as the American revolutionaries. The objective of this paper is to highlight the basic ideas of John Locke's political philosophy. To classify his philosophy and the way it was influenced, it is necessary to give a short overview over the historic conditions and brief biography of Locke's life. This is done in the second chapter. Based on this, the third chapter is dealing with Locke's political philosophy itself. In this connection, especially the reasons for forming a political society and the extent and share of political power are in the centre of this examination. In the last chapter the influence of Locke's political philosophy on subsequent history and current political systems is pointed out.