John Locke

English empiricist, political theorist, physician, and economist

          John Locke, the leading 17th century British empiricist of the Enlightenment whose original ideas and writings on liberal political theory,  including "government with the consent of the governed," and the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property, found his most influential apostles in the founders of the American republic, who relied on his thoughts and words to craft the Americans' Declaration of Independence.  Click here for more on Locke, the philosopher