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Lesson 2: Why did the Founders believe that people needed a government?
Lesson Purpose
In this lesson, you will learn some of the Founders’ most important ideas about our basic rights. You will learn the Founders’ beliefs about where these rights come from. Finally, you will learn why the Founders believed that people must have government.
Lesson Objectives
When you finish this lesson, you should be able to explain the Founders’ ideas about our rights and the purposes of our government.
Lesson Terms
property
Things that you own, such as books, a house, land, or a business. Your labor or work is also your property.
social contract
state of nature
Lesson Biographies
Locke, John (1632-1704 CE)
John Locke, a physician and philosopher, worked with famous scientists, including Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. In contrast to Hobbes, Locke used state of nature and social contract theory to justify limited government and the preservation of individual rights, particularly life, liberty, and property. Locke is sometimes called "America's philosopher" because his Second Treatise of Government (1690) was widely read by the colonists and important ideas found in it (as well as in works of English republican writers) are found in the Declaration of Independence, especially his theories of natural rights and his defense of violent revolution after "a long train of abuses" of power by rulers. Two verbatim phrases of Locke's are found in the Declaration.
