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Jon Locke was born on August 29, 1632 in a small cottage 12 miles from Bristol to a father of the same name, and his mother Agnes. In 1647 Locke began his studies at Westminster School in Longon, and eventually moved on to Chirst Church, Oxford. It was here that he began to find interest in the philosophy of the time favoring over the classical material taught. In 1667 he became the personal physician of the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. He became involved in English politics during this time and began his writings. The year 1683 saw Locke fleeing to the Netherlands due to belief that he was involved in a plot against the king. He did not return to England untill after the Glorious Revolution, it is after his return when the bulk of his publishing took place. He died on October 28, 1704. Locke is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment, and was an important contributor to liberal theory. His views on relegion are expressed in A Letter Concerning Toleration. In this work he expresses contrasting views to contemporary Thomas Hobbes that a mix of relegions is more supportive of social stability rather than a common one. He believed that a common relegion would only lead to dissent, while having a government tolerant of many relegions would allow for more unity. The stipulation to his toleration, is that the relegions must also be tolerant, this in his view excludes the Roman Catholic Church. It is in this same work that he also addresses the seperation of church and state. He believes that a governments responsibility is to protect external needs, such as life and property, while relegion serves to protect internal needs such as the soul, and salvation. Because the serve seperate needs, they are therefore seperate institutions. Locke's philosophy on human knowledge was published in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which first appeared in 1690. In this work he makes a rejection of the idea of innate knowledge proposed by Descartes. Locke's view was that people begin life with a blank slate, later called "tabula rasa". His fundamental arguement against innate ideas was that there is no common idea which all people share. He also discusses language, stating that the three purposes of language are "to convey our ideas, to do it with quickness, and to convey the knowledge of things." With this he claims that the failure of language is when words "are used without any ideas, when complex ideas are without names annexed to them, when the same sign is not put for the same idea, when words are diverted from their common use, and when they are names of fantastical imaginations." He then moves on to discuss knowledge defining it as "the perception of the connexion and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy of any of our ideas." His belief was that knowledge is not an actual thing but rather just an agreement of ideas among a group of people. Locke believed that nothing could truly be known, rather strongly agreed with, this is because there is always a chance that you will come across something that violates an accepted rule, therefore voiding your knowledge of it. His view of the mind being a blank slate also influenced his views on education. He believed that education makes a man and that there are three methods of education the development of a healthy body; the formation of a virtuous character; and the choice of an appropriate academic curriculum. Locke believed that all classes should be educated, and even women; though in a different manner than men. His most famous work Two Treatsies on Government was published anonymously in 1689, the influence of this book made it all the way to the founding fathers of the United States. In the first treatsie Locke argues against the belief in divine right. He claims that it has not basis in scripture and that it can only lead to absurdity. It is an arguement against Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, Filmer claimed that the right of rule was passed down from Adam. In the second treatsie Locke outlines his theory for a civil society. In this he reaches another disagreement with Thomas Hobbes, who believed that every man was in war with every man. Locke argued for a much more stable picture in which every man was created equal. This is where he his influence over the founding fathers becomes evident. He states that the only legitamate governments are those who rule with the consent of the people, therefore any government that doesn't can theoretically be overthrown. Locke claims that civil society is established for the protection of property, this is because when man is left in the state of nature he is in a state of anarchy. The basest form of property is mans ownership over himself, and the freedom to perform his labor, to be denied this freedom is to be a slave. Contrary to popular belief, Locke did not call for a democracy, rather for a social contract between the citizens of either a monarchy or an oligarchy. A breach of this contract would also allow for an uprising of the people, though a new government must be created or men would fall into a state of nature in which laws would be unenforced and a Hobbes like state of anarchy would develop.