John Locke was a 17th-century English philosopher known for his influential ideas on government and human understanding. He argued that individuals have natural rights to life, liberty, and property, which laid the groundwork for modern democracy and liberal thought. His work, particularly in Two Treatises of Government, emphasized the importance of consent in governance. Locke's philosophy also extended to the realm of knowledge, where he proposed that the mind is a blank slate at birth, shaped by experience. This concept of tabula rasa challenged existing notions of innate ideas and influenced later thinkers in the field of empiricism.