John Locke

1632 – 1704 · United Kingdom · Politics, Philosophy

Consent, property and toleration — the template for liberal constitutions.

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Continuity of ideas

Who shaped John Locke, and who they shaped

Inherited from1

  • Thomas Hobbes

    1588 – 1679 · Politics, Philosophy

    Locke's Two Treatises rewrites the social contract against Leviathan's absolute sovereign.

Passed the work to3

  • Alexander Hamilton

    1755 – 1804 · Politics, Economics

    Property, consent and limited government pass from the Second Treatise into the Federalist Papers.

  • Montesquieu

    1689 – 1755 · Politics, Law

    Locke's separation of powers becomes Montesquieu's tripartite constitution.

  • Voltaire

    1694 – 1778 · Literature, Philosophy

    Voltaire's Lettres philosophiques carried Lockean toleration and empiricism into France.

Sources and references

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