Locke Freedom Viewpoint

John Locke (1632-1704),the founder of modern liberalism, analyzed and pectinated the traditional concept of liberty of the European political and ideological tradition ,with the help of the Natural Law and The Social Contract theory, from the perspective of the relations between the individual and the government. He based his liberty on religion equality, with will and law as its core elements. He made meticulous analysis from these three aspects, making it one of the three inalienable natural rights of human being, with liberty and property the other. On this basis, Locke set up his liberalism political theory, the protection of human rights by means of various systems and principles, including the ruling by law, the separation of powers, religious tolerance, and created the leading tradition of the modern political and ideological development in the West—the liberalism tradition.However, for a long time, Not enough emphasis have been put upon Lock's liberty theory in Chinese academy, which highlights his empirism instead of his liberalism; They do not quite understand the important role of liberty in Locke's system, and not set liberty but the separation of powers and the rule of law as Locke's core values. This is not only incompatible with Lock's status of the founders of liberalism, but also a great misunderstanding upon Locke. In view of this, the author carefully studied Locke's original works, attempting to comprehensively grasp Locke's concept of liberty, by which he enquires the concept of liberty in the historical background of the Western liberty, and shows Lock's important role in the development of liberalism by comparing him with relevant thinkers, expecting to make a more objective and comprehensive assessment on Lock. This article is divided into three parts:Part I, to inspect the base and content of Lock's concept of liberty. This article asserts that Locke inherited the Western concept of liberty of the ancient Greece and Rome, and based his liberty concept on the Christian concept of equality. The content of liberty is free will and law. Locke described his concept of liberty from the following three aspects: the abstract individual freedom, the natural state of freedom and political and social freedom.Part II, to inspect Locke's system design as the guarantee for liberty. Locke believed that the end of the establishment of the government is nothing but to ensure people's "life, liberty and property". The government power must be limited and must be constrained. The government should implement the rule of law and the separation of powers. When the...