1. John Locke's part in the American Revolution: His ideas influenced America's founders. Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government (1689) expounded on ideas of government created by the people and for the people. Locke asserted that it was a law of nature that all persons are equal and independent and "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions."
2. What was the Enlightenment? A time when people began discussing new ideas. The philosophes (philosophical thinkers) of the Enlightenment period of the 18th century promoted the use of human reason to address society's issues, rather than relying only on past ideas or traditions.
3. Montesquieu would have approved of checks and balances. Montesquieu put forth his ideas in a famous book caled The Spirit of the Laws (1748).
4. A principle of the US Constitution influenced by Locke: popular sovereignty. Locke argued for the idea that the people are utlimately the source of authority in governing, and that decisions made by the majority of people are to determine what the laws are. Locke wrote: "When any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, they have thereby made that community one body, with a power to act as one body, which is only by the will and determination of the majority."
