Page "John Locke" Paragraph 10

Shaftesbury, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence on Locke's political ideas.

Locke became involved in politics when Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor in 1672.

Following Shaftesbury's fall from favour in 1675, Locke spent some time travelling across France as tutor and medical attendant to Caleb Banks.

He returned to England in 1679 when Shaftesbury's political fortunes took a brief positive turn.

Around this time, most likely at Shaftesbury's prompting, Locke composed the bulk of the Two Treatises of Government.

While it was once thought that Locke wrote the Treatises to defend the Glorious Revolution of 1688, recent scholarship has shown that the work was composed well before this date, and it is now viewed as a more general argument against absolute monarchy ( particularly as espoused by Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes ) and for individual consent as the basis of political legitimacy.

Though Locke was associated with the influential Whigs, his ideas about natural rights and government are today considered quite revolutionary for that period in English history.