Locker's Thought Of Individual Rights

Since modern times, with the capitalist economic development and the continuous exploration in natural science which broke through the medieval theological fetters for the countries and people, the independent individual is produced. With the consciousness of individual rights awakening, the concept of individual rights has gradually become the focus of the political thinkers in the European mainland and is reflected in their works. This concept plays a key role in and has a far-reaching influence on the political practice. During the bourgeois revolution, Hobbes, Locker and Rousseau are the main representatives of the thought of individual rights. And it was John Locker who systematically elaborated and peaked individual rights. His thoughts of individual rights inherited and surpassed the predecessors', making the thought more comprehensive, more systematic and more perfect, and making it reflect the characteristics of the times better. Based on Locker's thought of individual rights, the paper highlights its important position and role in the whole history of western political thought.This first part discusses how John Locker's thought of individual rights arose. In medieval Europe, Christian controlled the individuals in ideology and the political system. Thus the concept of independent individuals did not exist. The proposal of Machiavelli's Evil Nature and the creation of Hobbes's Leviathan made the individuals obtain the independent status. Meanwhile the concept of individual rights appeared. Locker lived in an age of the British bourgeois revolution, when the monarchy thinking rampaged in Europe. Such thinking posed a great threat on the legitimacy of the status of the emerging bourgeois regime. As a bourgeois thinker, Locker wrote two parts of "Government" in order to maintain the dominance of the class, and criticized the authoritarian ideology spent in all the first part. In the process of refuting Feier Mai Jazz's "divine rights of kings", Locker put forward the thought of individual rights.The second part discusses the connotation and the main content of Locker's thought of individual rights. Locker deduced individual rights by natural law from the assumption of the natural state. Locker looked on such individual rights as personal and inherent rights. Locker's ideas of individual rights covered the right to life, liberty, and property. Of the three basic rights, the right to life is the most fundamental right and the right to property is the core of individual rights. There is a certain internal logic link among the three rights, and they form an integrally complete system.The third part of this article discusses that individual rights will be reflected through legislative, executive power and the right to vote in the political community. In Locker's view, individual rights are real and the composition of the government is due to the award of the partly individual rights, that is, individuals entrust the part of their rights to the government by means of commission. And thus the power of government comes from individuals and the government power is only a power of helping gain people's welfare. Through the exercise of Legislative and executive power and the right to vote, governmental authority reflects the supremacy and the inviolability of individual rights.The fourth part of this article discusses that the government protects individual rights in the political community. Individual rights constitute a source of the governmental authority's legitimacy, but the real purpose of the governmental authority is only to protect the natural individual rights. And thus the government's power is limited and the government can only be a limited government. By setting the governmental power in the system level and treating the principle of separation of powers as a governmental basic principle, individual rights attain protection from the government in the political community. The conclusion briefly discusses the impact of individual rights on future generations and the far-reaching significance. Locker's thought of individual rights has an important effect on the political theory research of the political thinkers. The power theory becomes the principle and the theoretical basis of the governmental practice on the political system, and theoretically guides the American and French revolutions.