Rejected divine right of kings and religious duty to obey
State created by people to serve human interests
Consent of the governed is required for a state to be true
State of nature was tolerable because people are rational
Natural laws and rights like property exist without a state
Government exists to resolve disputes better than the state of nature
Social contract means citizens accept laws in exchange for better conditions
Limited government must only represent the interests of the governed
Powers must be split between branches like legislative and executive
Human Nature
Believed that all men are free “to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions as persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law and nature.”
Believed that “the state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it”, and that law is reason.
Believed that reason teaches that “no one brought to harm another in his life, liberty, and or property”; and that transgressions of this may be punished
Believed that the state of nature and civil society to be opposites of each other, and the need for civil society comes in part from the perpetual existence of the state of nature