John Locke

Englishman John Locke (1632-1704) was the leading political philosopher during the Enlightenment, whose ideas helped the American colonists form a new government. Locke described society as a contract between an individual and society. This was a radical concept at a time when monarchs and the divine right of kings was the controlling theory. Locke’s view helped lay the foundation for the constitutional government that we use in the United States. Locke had built on the prior work of Englishmen Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes.