What philosopher wrote that people possessed the fundamental rights to life, liberty and property and that it was the government's duty to protect these rights?

INCORRECT

The correct answer is: John Locke

The ideas of the English philosopher John Locke had a profound effect on the political development of the young United States. In works like Two Treatises of Government (1690), he rejected the prevailing view that rulers derived their authority from God, and thus were entitled to unlimited power. Instead, Locke argued that all people possessed fundamental rights to life, liberty, and property, and that it was the government's duty to protect these rights—a concept Thomas Jefferson expressed in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence more than three-quarters of a century later: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

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