John Locke

John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher and physician, the founder of British empiricism and a principal source of liberal political thought. Educated at Oxford, he became physician and adviser to the Earl of Shaftesbury, followed his patron into opposition to Charles II and spent several years in exile in Holland. After the Revolution of 1688 he published in quick succession the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which argued that all knowledge comes from experience, the Two Treatises of Government, which grounded political authority in consent and natural rights, and the Letters Concerning Toleration. Some Thoughts Concerning Education followed. His ideas passed into the American and French revolutions.