ABSTRACT
John Locke was an English physician whose philosophy greatly influenced democratic thought and promoted civil liberties, especially in the United States. Locke's political philosophy is found principally in Two Treatises on Civil Government and Letter on Toleration. The First Treatise destroyed Sir Robert Filmer's claim that the king ruled by divine right. In the Second Treatise Locke taught that governments originated from a primal social contract. Locke's thinking explicitly influenced America's Declaration of Independence. Its author, Thomas Jefferson, concurred with Locke's view that people were born with natural rights, including the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Locke's influence on the Constitution of the United States was also enormous. For Locke, property was a natural right. In his chapter on property in the Second Treatise, Locke discussed property in terms of the labor theory of value.
