Locke Philosophy Of Law To Explore

John Locke (1632-1704), the first predecessor of liberalism andfather of the theory of human rights ,who epitomized the thoughts of empiricism in 17th England, is different from those representatives of the classic natural law school of his age. It is such a unique status that draws our attention to the inquiry of his thought of philosophy of rights.This thesis develops in the following three phases.First , we trace back to the sources of Locke' s thought of philoso-phy of right. In the part, we analyze it from the three angles of episte-mology the theory of human nature and the doctrine of natural kw. Through the analysis from the first angle, we find Locke's thought of philosophy of right is deeply influenced by his theory of knowledge which is based on experience and tries to integrate experience with reason, while resulting in the separation of them. Through the analysis from the other two angles, we find his thought of philosophy of right is an in-evitable outcome of the development of the thought of his predecessors.Secondly, we make an inquiry of the basic content of Locke's phi-losophy of right. In the part, Locke's doctrine of natural law,,the theory of the four key elements of right and the theory of right principles are analyzed. Locke's doctrine of natural law, with the criticism of the the-ological law thoughts as its prerequisite, provides reasonable basis for the establishment of the capitalist system of state and institution of law. The basis is the theory of popular sovereignty which comes from natural kw and social contract. The theory of popular sovereignty is embodied in the theory of the four key elements of right, that is, the right of life is die cornerstone, the right of liberty is the essential , the right of equality isthe guarantee and the right of property is the substance. And all the right needs to be protected by laws of state and society. So Locke put forward the theory of right principles in which the rule of law and decentralization are discussed.Outlining the basic contents of Locke' s thought of philosophy of right, we can draw that it has deep concern with people. This concern is displayed in the defence of people's four rights, that is the right of life liberty equality and property. In the political society, the government and all the laws serve for these rights. The rule of law and decentraliza-tion, the two main principles of law, are designed to make laws conve-nient to defend people' s rights and interests. But its conservativeness and limitedness set obstacles to realize its ideal.Thirdly, based on the above-mentioned content, we demonstrate the influence and deficiency of Locke's thought of philosophy of right to modern and contemporary states by analyzing the development of the doctrine of natural law, modern state system of the popular sovereignty, contemporary western principle of the rule of law and decentralization and the principle of freedom.At the end of this thesis, we mention the significance of Locke's thought of philosophy of right to our country' s construction of the rule of law.