John Locke

John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher and physician, a founder of British empiricism, educated at Oxford. From 1666 he served Anthony Ashley Cooper, later Earl of Shaftesbury.

After Shaftesbury's fall he took refuge in the Netherlands in 1683. He returned only in 1689, after the Glorious Revolution.

His Letter Concerning Toleration appeared in 1689, followed by Two Treatises of Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, arguing for natural rights, government by consent and the mind as a blank slate. He also defended the right to resist tyranny, and died in Essex in 1704.