Friday, September 18, 2009

Did Thomas Jefferson read John Locke?

I believe that Thomas Jefferson did in fact read over John Locke's "Second Treatise". There are several points in the Declaration where there are verbatim passages from the Second Treatise. For example, the Second Treatise uses the line " Life, Liberty and property", but the Declaration changes it to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness". Also the Declaration talks about Locke's "Laws of nature and Laws of God". It seems as if Thomas Jefferson just took ideas from many different political figures and added all of their ideas into the Declaration.

1 comment:

  1. A bit short. You did hit the major points so you completed the assignment. Not a bad job.

    13/15

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