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Locke, John

  1. A seventeenth-century English philosopher . Locke argued against the belief that human beings are born with certain ideas already in their minds. He claimed that, on the contrary, the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) until experience begins to “write” on it. In his political writings, Locke attacked the doctrine of the divine right of kings and argued that governments depend on the consent of the governed.


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Notes

Locke's political ideas were taken up by the American Founding Fathers ; his influence is especially apparent in the Declaration of Independence .

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Example Sentences

By 2002, he was sitting alongside Pope on the board of the John Locke Foundation.

Not since John Locke has there been as articulate a defender of religious freedom as Madison, we now know.

Instead, he began talking about John Rawls and John Locke, a social contract between the government and the governed.

That was a great moment when John Locke turned to him and said, “Widmore—Charles Widmore?”

I think Ben and John Locke [from Lost] should be roommates in Brooklyn.

John Locke, an American physician and naturalist, died at Cincinnati, aged 64.

His paternal grandmother was a kinsman of John Locke, the English philosopher and metaphysician.

Had John Locke's Carolina laws lasted, we would have been under a grinding oligarchy.

John Locke had asserted the truth, but the theological view continued to control public opinion.

Another advocate of toleration was John Locke, whose chief influence was as a rationalist in philosophy and religion.

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