Which thinker proposed natural rights such as life, liberty, and property?

• A. John Locke
• B. Thomas Hobbes
• C. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• D. Baron de Montesquieu

Answer: (A)

Natural rights are rights that people possess simply by being human, and they provide a limit on what government can legitimately do. John Locke is the thinker who most clearly argued that life, liberty, and property are such rights that exist in the state of nature and that government’s purpose is to protect them. He explains that people form a social contract to create a government whose job is to safeguard these rights; if the government fails to do so or oversteps, people have justification to alter or replace it. This idea helped shape modern constitutional thinking, showing why governments exist to protect individual rights rather than to rule arbitrarily.

Thinkers like Hobbes, Rousseau, and Montesquieu emphasize other aspects of political theory—Hobbes focuses on an absolute ruler to prevent chaos, Rousseau centers on the general will of the people, and Montesquieu analyzes the organization of government powers. None attach the foundational role of life, liberty, and property to natural rights in the same way Locke does, which is why Locke is the best answer for this question.