Letters
Locke on consent
10 September 2005
Dear Sir
Any list of the most influential books should include Locke’s Two Treatises of Government. Locke’s repudiation of the divine right of Kings and his belief in government by consent were controversial ideas in the late seventeenth century. Important too was his doctrine of the natural rights of man, summed up as the right to life, liberty and property. For Locke, no ruler could legitimately govern if those fundamental rights were taken away from those who were governed. These ideas influenced revolutionaries in France and America and his thinking about liberty foreshadowed the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
Yours sincerely
Jeremy Havardi
top