John Locke was an English philosopher, His writings have had great influence on political science as well as philosophy. Locke's book Two Treaties of Government strongly influenced Thomas Jefferson in the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
             Locke's major work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, described his theory on how the mind functions in learning about the world. Locke argued against the doctrine of innate ideas, which stated that ideas were part of the mind at birth and not learned later from outside sources. Locke claimed that all ideas were planted in the mind through experiences. He declared that there were two kinds of experiences, outer and inner. Outer experiences were acquired through the senses of sight, smell taste hearing and touch which provided information about the external world. Inner experiences were acquired by thinking about the mental process and the procedure in which your mind deals with all experiences.
             Locke believed that the universe contained three kinds of things: minds, different forms of bodies, and God. He believed there were two kinds of bodies. Those that could be measured mathematically, such as height and weight, and qualitative bodies, those that can be deciphered through sound and color. Locke believed that these bodies did not actually contain these properties that they did however posses power in the mind to produce ideas of sound and color.
             According to Locke, a good life was a life of pleasure. Pleasure and pain were ideas that went along with almost all human experiences. Locke also believed that God had established divine law. This law could be discovered by reason and to disregard it would be morally wrong. Locke believed that the Divine law, and pleasure principle went hand in hand.
             Locke believed that people by nature had certain rights and duties. These rights included the ideas of life, liberty, and the
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