John Locke

• Holds that personal identity is a matter of psychological continuity and considers our identity to be found in our memories
• Uses a theory of natural rights to argue that governments have obligations to their citizens.
• Theory of Mind which is known as the first modern conception of identity
• Believed that at birth children were blank states (tabula rasa), and their learning and experience would influence what they became (environment influences development).
• Believed in religious toleration
• Believed in the separation of church and state

- Important to the development of modern legislative and executive power

- Works influenced by people such as Thomas Hobbes, Francis Bacon, and Rene Descartes