The Inspiration of the Declaration of Independence

Many of us tend to wonder what was the inspiration of the Declaration of Independence? What or who influenced one of the greatest founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, to create such an important document in our American history. To really understand what influenced Thomas Jefferson, we must understand some of the men who inspired him when creating this document. Its also important for us to understand the philosophies these men went by, and why Thomas Jefferson wanted incorporate their philosophies in his grand ideas. We also need to understand what was happening at the time when the Declaration was written. These are all questions that we are going to dive into to understand why Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous Declaration of Independence. One of the great philosophers that Thomas Jefferson followed was John Locke. John Locke was a British philosopher who was known for his liberal anti-authoritarian theory of state, his empirical theory of knowledge, his advocacy of religious tolera tion, and his theory of personal identity. When Locke was developing one of his theories which was to obey the state, he was able to make sense of when starting from an initial state of nature with no government, police or private property, people will understand, with careful reason, that there are natural laws. These natural laws are rights to our own persons and to our own labor. Society will eventually notice that a social contract could be created with others; and out of this contract,Show MoreRelatedHistory : The American Revolution Essay1435 Words   |  6 Pagesbelieved that without this revolution, the world could have witnessed the rise of the pioneering liberal country. 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