Some Exciting "Dirt" on John Locke?

Question

I'm doing a project for history that involves dressing up as a famous person and presenting to the class. My person (chosen for me by the teacher) is John Locke. I would've preferred Louis XIV or Napoleon... but life isn't perfect. Now my goal is to make Locke as exciting as possible for a class of bored peers. If Locke said or did anything that you consider interesting or especially radical, I would appreciate the help.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Actually....little known fact (or new theory) about John Locke:

His theory of property (how private property arises) isn't just philosophy; it had a very practical purpose of explaining why the English could come to America and take away lands that the American Indians occupied and used.

Locke's theory was that the native Americans did not "own" property like "civilized people" do. While native Americans roamed the land, the English fenced off land and worked on it...mixing their labor with the land, which is how you get ownership.

So once you view his theory of property in this context, it's not as noble a philosophy as it first appeared. It could just be political propoganda. But...it also highlights something that history books usually gloss over: there was a lot of debate over the morality of English colonialism, i.e., why it's ok to arrive uninvited to a foreign land and take away property used by the native population.

Those acts would be seen as criminal today. Pretty exciting, huh?? :)

Answer 2

John Locke is most famous for his Second Treatise on Government, is perhaps the most radical boring book you will ever read. John Locke's style is very mechanical, often disguising his own political philosophies perhaps for his own safety.

Traditionally, Locke's Second Treatise was seen as a refutation of Thomas Hobbes political essay "The Leviathan", however, twentieth century scholarship, mainly spearheaded by Leo Strauss interprets The Second Treatise as being strikingly similar to Hobbes' Leviathan, with slight modulation.

Perhaps his most scandalous or exciting attribute of Locke was his ability to harness the explicit and often brutally graphic language of Machiavelli and Hobbes into a public friendly treatise.

-Kerplunk!

Answer 3

Hm... he practiced medicine without a degree (not too uncommon at the time, really, but odd by modern standards) and fled the country on suspicion of being involved with an assassination attempt against the king. And then there was that romantic engagement... he never did marry her, but he did end up living at her residence after she married a lord. I suppose that's a start.

It's not going to be easy to dig up dirt on a Puritan, though...

Answer 4

You might concentrate on his notion tabula rasa, that every child is born a "blank slate." This was a radical notion in his day, that you could just take some random child born in a dirt hut and bring them up a prince or take a baby prince out of a palace and bring them up a peasant or thief. It really flew in the face of divine right.

Answer 5

Are your talking about Locke from Lost? If you are, he saved Mr.Eko's life from a polar bear and helped Charlie to stop his drug addiction. Also he is very clever and is probably one of the most important members of the survivors.