John Locke

The Two Treatises of Government appeared anonymously in 1689, and Locke denied authorship until his will. The first demolishes Robert Filmer's claim that kings inherit their authority from Adam; the second builds government on consent instead, on natural rights to life, liberty and property, and on the right of a people to remove a ruler who breaks the trust. A Letter Concerning Toleration, written in Latin and put into English by William Popple that same year, argues that no magistrate can compel belief and that force produces conformity rather than faith. Some Thoughts Concerning Education grew out of letters to a friend about bringing up his son. Locke trained as a physician at Oxford and served the first Earl of Shaftesbury as doctor and adviser, which took him into exile in the Netherlands from 1683 until the Revolution. He also held stock in the Royal African Company, which traded in enslaved Africans, and had a hand in drafting the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina.