Assignment
Use your notebook, textbook, or the links below to help you complete the Key Philosophies of the Declaration of Independence worksheet.
Social Studies Webpage - scroll down to section on Colonial America
Key Philosophies
Many colonists had read books by John Locke, a philosopher in the late 1600s, and believed in his ideas. His ideas went on to influence many other people as time passed.
In his book, Two Treatises of Government, published in 1690, John Locke wrote:
"...we must consider what state men are naturally in: a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature....A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is mutual, no one having more than another....but though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of license...the state of nature has a law of nature which obliges everyone; and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it that, being equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions."
The writings of John Locke influenced Thomas Jefferson. While he was writing the Declaration of Independence, he remembered many of Locke's "key philosophies" and incorporated them into the Declaration of Independence.