How Did John Locke Influence The American Constitution

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• Thomas used Aristotle’s view of natural law to justify the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in political as well as religious matters. For the purpose of explaining the fundamental reasons of law he used Aristotle’s philosophy and added the use of an eternal ruler. John Locke • John Locke had a distinct influence on the writers of the American Constitution by advocating for human rights and liberty through democracy. In saying so, he believed that the mass majority of ordinary people can be capable of giving consent to their governor/ruler as opposed to the Monarch government. However if the ruler did not comply with the needs of the people, Locke believed that the public had the justified right to rebel. Ultimately, Locke had a great influence in the American Constitution with the message within his philosophies on human rights and government. Baron de Montesquieu's • Montesquieu’s introduced the separation of …show more content…

In his writing of “The Prince” he speaks of how a successful political leader or “Prince” would “seem” to be of religious background along with being merciful and honest. He accompanies this by saying how political leaders shall lie if need be. Using cruelty is also something that shall be used by political leaders however the “Prince” must maintain a merciful appearance. One can argue that he advocates a major moral issue by telling political leaders to lie while ruling a society. This is where he becomes famous for separating ethics and politics. We find traces of his philosophy in modern politics by how people running for seats of power make many promises in their campaign and once the people elect them, they may fall short in accomplishing their promises. Where Machiavelli mentioned using cruelty, one can say this applied to the rise of Hitler’s reign by how he punished the Jew’s and other minorities all the while maintaining a merciful appearance for those who supported

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