Question

1.3.2 Quiz: Inspiration for Independence

Question 3 of 10
2 Points
What idea in the Declaration of Independence reflects the influence of John
Locke?​

Answer 1

Explanation:Another Enlightenment idea in the Declaration is that people have the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights come from those Locke felt the government should protect, though Locke defined these rights as life, liberty, and property.

It is a part of John Locke's Natural Rights popular during the age of enlightenment that people had inalienable rights to life, liberty and property. This was reflected by Thomas Jefferson in his Declaration of Independence as rights to life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Answer 2

The ideas in the Declaration of Independence that reflect the influence of John Locke are the following:

1. People are entitled to certain unalienable rights.
2. The government had to protect those rights.
3. The government’s legitimacy comes from the consent of the governed and it had to be accountable for the people.
4. Whenever a government failed to protect people's fundamental rights, it had to be abolished and replaced.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Declaration of Independence was highly influenced by Enlightenment ideas, especially those ideas developed in John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" (1689).

In this work, Locke claimed that men were by nature free and equal, but with the purpose to interact in a healthy society, it was necessary that they transferred some of their rights to a government in a "Social Contract". Under that contract, the government had to be elected by the people and had to protect people's natural rights to life, liberty, and property. However, whenever the government failed to do so, people had the authority to abolish it and replace it.

Similarly, in the Declaration of Independence, the Thirteen American colonies unanimously declared independence from Britain for violating the social contract, that is, for not securing people's unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (The latter being a concept said to be taken out from one of the others Locke's work). In the document, the colonies also favored a limited government whose power came from the consent of the governed and that had to be accountable for people.