Locke vs Jefferson
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The Second Treatise of Government, subtitled An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government, stands today as an extremely influential work that shaped political philosophy and provided a basis for later political doctrines, such as those set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, and The Second Treatise on Civil Government by John Locke, are two similar works. Locke's work seems to have had an influence on Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Both works were written on government, what it should and should not be. Locke begins the Second Treatise with his own version of the State of Nature. In chapters Two and Three, Locke describes a State of Nature that is less bleak than other writer's interpretation. Locke suggests that in the State of Nature there is equality and independence between individuals and that all men are bound by Natural Law to respect each other's Natural rights. Though he admits that that sometimes peace and the goodwill in the State of Nature can give way to a State of War, it is nonetheless "a state of liberty not a state of license" (99, Wooton) and the rights to life, liberty and property exist. Locke's assumptions of the State of Nature and the existence of natural rights are central to the arguments on which the subsequent chapters rest on, and form the basis for the formation of civil society and the ultimate creation of government by civil consent.
After describing the State of Nature, Locke begins a discussion on men's rights to ownership...