John Locke (pronounced /lɒk/; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English Traditionally Christianity, mostly Anglicanism, but also non-conformists and also Roman Catholics (see Catholic Emancipation). Agnostics, atheist as well as other religions. (see Religion in England) philosopher Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "Philosophy" comes from the and physician A physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury. This properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority thinkers. Considered the first of the British Traditionally Christianity, mostly Protestantism, but also Roman Catholicism. Other religions include Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. Agnosticism and atheism are also prevailent empiricists In philosophy, "empiricism" is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge arises from sense experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things", part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "the Theory of Knowledge". Empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and, he is equally important to social contract Social contract describes a broad class of theories that try to explain the ways in which people form states to maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up sovereignty to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order through the rule of law. It can also be thought of as an theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge. It addresses the questions: and political philosophy Political philosophy is the study of concepts such as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it should take and why, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe. His writings influenced Voltaire François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and free trade. Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every literary form including plays, poetry, novels, and Rousseau Jean Jacques Rousseau was a major Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought, many Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By 1750, Scots were among the most literate citizens of Europe, with an estimated 75% level of literacy thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies among the possessions in North America of the Kingdom of Great Britain at first rejected the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the British monarchy itself, to become the sovereign United States of. His contributions to classical republicanism Classical republicanism is a form of republicanism originating from and inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity. After a gaping centuries-long period of neglect due to unique arrangements of medieval feudalism lasting until the Renaissance, its main ideas were recovered and went on to flourish during Classicism and and liberal theory Individual contributors to classical liberalism and political liberalism are strongly associated with philosophers of the Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from aristocracy. It included the ideas of self-determination, the primacy of the are reflected in the American ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal.[2]

Locke's theory of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of modern analytic philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e. the relationship of the mind to the body, is commonly seen as the central issue in is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity In philosophy, identity is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable, in terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics that distinguish it from entities of a different type. Or, in layman's terms, identity is whatever makes something the same or different and the self The self is a key construct in several schools of psychology, broadly referring to the cognitive and affective representation of one's identity. The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self as Me, the object that is known. Current views of the self in, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume is often grouped with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others as a British Empiricist, Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a major Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th-century Enlightenment. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought and Kant Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg. Kant was the last influential philosopher of modern Europe in the classic sequence of the theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment beginning with thinkers John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness Consciousness is subjective experience or awareness or wakefulness or the executive control system of the mind. It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena. Although humans realize what everyday experiences are, consciousness refuses to be defined, philosophers note :. He postulated that the mind Mind is the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes. The term is often used to refer, by implication, to the thought processes of reason. Mind manifests itself subjectively as a stream of consciousness was a blank slate or tabula rasa Tabula rasa refers to the epistemological thesis that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. Contrary to pre-existing Cartesian René Descartes , (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650), also known as Renatus Cartesius (Latinized form), was a French philosopher, mathematician, intellectual, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy", and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a philosophy, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas Innatism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that the mind is born with ideas/knowledge, and that therefore the mind is not a 'blank slate' at birth, as early empiricists such as John Locke claimed. It asserts therefore that not all knowledge is obtained from experience and the senses, and that knowledge Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation is instead determined only by experience Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event. The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment derived from sense Senses are the physiological methods of perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception. The nervous system has a specific sensory system, or organ, dedicated to each sense perception In philosophy, and psychology/cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. The word "perception" comes from the Latin words perceptio, percipio, and means "receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses.".[3]

Contents

Biography

Locke's father, who was also named John Locke, was a country lawyer In the U.S., a country lawyer, or county-seat lawyer, refers to an attorney who has completed little or no formal legal training and has become a member of a county bar or a state bar after "reading law"; traditionally, these lawyers practiced general law in a rural setting, or on the frontier such as Andrew Jackson and clerk to the Justices of the Peace in Chew Magna,[4] who had served as a captain of cavalry for the Parliamentarian "Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings forces during the early part of the English Civil War The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first (1642–46) and second (1648–49) civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war (1649–51) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II. His mother, Agnes Keene, was a tanner's daughter and reputed to be very beautiful. Both parents were Puritans A Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant of practices which they associated with. Locke was born on 29 August 1632, in a small thatched cottage In modern usage, a cottage is a modest dwelling, typically in a rural, or semi-rural location . In the United Kingdom, the term cottage tends to denote a rurally- (sometimes village-) located one-and-a-half story property, where on the second (upstairs floor) one has to walk into the eaves in order to look through the windows, which are generally by the church in Wrington Wrington is a village and civil parish in North Somerset, England. It lies in the valley of the Congresbury Yeo river about 9 miles east of Weston-super-Mare and 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east of Yatton. It is both a civil parish, with a population of 2,896, and an ecclesiastical parish. Both parishes contain the nearby village of Redhill, Somerset Somerset (pronounced /ˈsʌmɚsɨt/ or /ˈsʌmɚsɛt/ ) is a county in South West England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The ceremonial county of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly, about twelve miles from Bristol Bristol (pronounced /ˈbrɪstəl/ ) is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, 105 miles (169 km) west of London, and 24 miles (39 km) east of Cardiff. He was baptized In Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which a person is admitted to membership of the Christian Church the same day. Soon after Locke's birth, the family moved to the market town Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city. A town may be correctly described as a "market town" or as having "market rights", even if it no longer holds a market, provided the legal of Pensford Pensford is a village in the civil parish of Publow and Pensford in Somerset, England. It lies in the Chew Valley 7 miles (11 km) south of Bristol and 8 miles (13 km) west of Bath. It is on the A37 road from Bristol to Shepton Mallet, about seven miles south of Bristol, where Locke grew up in a rural Tudor The Tudor style in architecture is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons. It followed the Perpendicular style and, although superseded by Elizabethan architecture in domestic building of any pretensions to fashion, the Tudor style still retained its hold on English house in Belluton Belluton is a village in Somerset, England. It is in the district of Bath and North East Somerset and is located due south of the city of Bristol and due west of the city of Bath. The eastern end of the village is defined by the A37 road.

In 1647, Locke was sent to the prestigious Westminster School The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college. Located in the precincts of Westminster Abbey in central London, and with a history stretching back beyond the 12th century, the in London London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is the UK's largest and most populous metropolitan area and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures under the sponsorship of Alexander Popham Alexander Popham, of Littlecote, Wiltshire was an English politician. He is now remembered for his role as patron of the philosopher John Locke, a member of Parliament A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of parliament tend to form parliamentary parties with members and former commander of the younger Locke's father. After completing his studies there, he was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford This article is about the Oxford college. For other uses, see Christ Church or Christchurch. The dean of the college at the time was John Owen, vice-chancellor of the university. Although a capable student, Locke was irritated by the undergraduate curriculum of the time. He found the works of modern philosophers, such as René Descartes, more interesting than the classical material taught at the university. Through his friend Richard Lower, whom he knew from the Westminster School, Locke was introduced to medicine and the experimental philosophy being pursued at other universities and in the English Royal Society, of which he eventually became a member.

Locke was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1656 and a master's degree in 1658. He obtained a bachelor of medicine in 1674, having studied medicine extensively during his time at Oxford and worked with such noted scientists and thinkers as Robert Boyle, Thomas Willis, Robert Hooke and Richard Lower. In 1666, he met Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, who had come to Oxford seeking treatment for a liver infection. Cooper was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to become part of his retinue.

Locke had been looking for a career and in 1667 moved into Shaftesbury's home at Exeter House in London, to serve as Lord Ashley's personal physician. In London, Locke resumed his medical studies under the tutelage of Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham had a major effect on Locke's natural philosophical thinking – an effect that would become evident in the An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

Locke's medical knowledge was put to the test when Shaftesbury's liver infection became life-threatening. Locke coordinated the advice of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading Shaftesbury to undergo an operation (then life-threatening itself) to remove the cyst. Shaftesbury survived and prospered, crediting Locke with saving his life.

It was in Shaftesbury's household, during 1671, that the meeting took place, described in the Epistle to the reader of the Essay, which was the genesis of what would later become the Essay. Two extant Drafts still survive from this period. It was also during this time that Locke served as Secretary of the Board of Trade and Plantations and Secretary to the Lords and Proprietors of the Carolinas, helping to shape his ideas on international trade and economics.

John Locke

Shaftesbury, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence on Locke's political ideas. Locke became involved in politics when Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor in 1672. Following Shaftesbury's fall from favour in 1675, Locke spent some time travelling across France. He returned to England in 1679 when Shaftesbury's political fortunes took a brief positive turn. Around this time, most likely at Shaftesbury's prompting, Locke composed the bulk of the Two Treatises of Government. While it was once thought that Locke wrote the Treatises to defend the Glorious Revolution of 1688, recent scholarship has shown that the work was composed well before this date,[5] however, and it is now viewed as a more general argument against Absolute monarchy (particularly as espoused by Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes) and for individual consent as the basis of political legitimacy. Though Locke was associated with the influential Whigs, his ideas about natural rights and government are today considered quite revolutionary for that period in English history.

However, Locke fled to the Netherlands in 1683, under strong suspicion of involvement in the Rye House Plot, although there is little evidence to suggest that he was directly involved in the scheme. In the Netherlands, Locke had time to return to his writing, spending a great deal of time re-working the Essay and composing the Letter on Toleration. Locke did not return home until after the Glorious Revolution. Locke accompanied William of Orange's wife back to England in 1688. The bulk of Locke's publishing took place upon his return from exile – his aforementioned Essay Concerning Human Understanding, the Two Treatises of Civil Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration all appearing in quick succession.

Locke's close friend Lady Masham invited him to join her at the Mashams' country house in Essex. Although his time there was marked by variable health from asthma attacks, he nevertheless became an intellectual hero of the Whigs. During this period he discussed matters with such figures as John Dryden and Isaac Newton.

He died in 28 October 1704, and is buried in the churchyard of the village of High Laver,[6] east of Harlow in Essex, where he had lived in the household of Sir Francis Masham since 1691. Locke never married nor had children.

Events that happened during Locke's lifetime include the English Restoration, the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London. He did not quite see the Act of Union of 1707, though the thrones of England and Scotland were held in personal union throughout his lifetime. Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy were in their infancy during Locke's time.

Influence

Locke exercised a profound influence on political philosophy, in particular on modern liberalism. Michael Zuckert has argued that Locke launched liberalism by tempering Hobbesian absolutism and clearly separating the realms of Church and State. He had a strong influence on Voltaire who called him "le sage Locke". His arguments concerning liberty and the social contract later influenced the written works of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers of the United States. In fact, several passages from the Second Treatise are reproduced verbatim in the Declaration of Independence, most notably the reference to a "long train of abuses." Such was Locke's influence that Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Bacon, Locke and Newton ... I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences".[7][8][9] Today, most contemporary libertarians claim Locke as an influence.

But Locke's influence may have been even more profound in the realm of epistemology. Locke redefined subjectivity, or self, and intellectual historians such as Charles Taylor and Jerrold Seigel argue that Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) marks the beginning of the modern Western conception of the self.[10]

Theories of religious tolerance

Locke, writing his Letters Concerning Toleration (1689-92) in the aftermath of the European wars of religion, formulated a classic reasoning for religious tolerance. Three arguments are central: (1) Earthly judges, the state in particular, and human beings generally, cannot dependably evaluate the truth-claims of competing religious standpoints; (2) Even if they could, enforcing a single "true religion" would not have the desired effect, because belief cannot be compelled by violence; (3) Coercing religious uniformity would lead to more social disorder than allowing diversity. [11]

Constitution of Carolina

Appraisals of Locke have often been tied to appraisals of liberalism in general, and also to appraisals of the United States. Detractors note that (in 1671) he was a major investor in the English slave-trade through the Royal Africa Company, as well as through his participation in drafting the Fundamental Constitution of the Carolinas while Shaftesbury's secretary, which established a feudal aristocracy and gave a master absolute power over his slaves. They note that as a secretary to the Council of Trade and Plantations (1673–4) and a member of the Board of Trade (1696–1700) Locke was, in fact, "one of just half a dozen men who created and supervised both the colonies and their iniquitous systems of servitude"[12] Some see his statements on unenclosed property as having justified the displacement of the Native Americans. Because of his opposition to aristocracy and slavery in his major writings, he is accused of hypocrisy, or of caring only for the liberty of English capitalists.

Theory of value and property

Locke uses the word property in both broad and narrow senses. In a broad sense, it covers a wide range of human interests and aspirations; more narrowly, it refers to material goods. He argues that property is a natural right and it is derived from labor.

Locke believed that ownership of property is created by the application of labor. In addition, property precedes government and government cannot "dispose of the estates of the subjects arbitrarily." Karl Marx later critiqued Locke's theory of property in his social theory.

Political theory

See also: Two Treatises of Government

Locke's political theory was founded on social contract theory. Unlike Thomas Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. Like Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature allowed men to be selfish. This is apparent with the introduction of currency. In a natural state all people were equal and independent, and everyone had a natural right to defend his “Life, health, Liberty, or Possessions", basis for the phrase in America; "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".[13]

Like Hobbes, Locke assumed that the sole right to defend in the state of nature was not enough, so people established a civil society to resolve conflicts in a civil way with help from government in a state of society. However, Locke never refers to Hobbes by name[14] and may instead have been responding to other writers of the day.[15] Locke also advocated governmental separation of powers and believed that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some circumstances. These ideas would come to have profound influence on the Constitution of the United States and its Declaration of Independence.

Limits to accumulation

Labor creates property, but it also does contain limits to its accumulation: man’s capacity to produce and man’s capacity to consume. According to Locke, unused property is waste and an offense against nature. However, with the introduction of “durable” goods, men could exchange their excessive perishable goods for goods that would last longer and thus not offend the natural law. The introduction of money marks the culmination of this process. Money makes possible the unlimited accumulation of property without causing waste through spoilage. He also includes gold or silver as money because they may be “hoarded up without injury to anyone,” since they do not spoil or decay in the hands of the possessor. The introduction of money eliminates the limits of accumulation. Locke stresses that inequality has come about by tacit agreement on the use of money, not by the social contract establishing civil society or the law of land regulating property. Locke is aware of a problem posed by unlimited accumulation but does not consider it his task. He just implies that government would function to moderate the conflict between the unlimited accumulation of property and a more nearly equal distribution of wealth and does not say which principles that government should apply to solve this problem. However, not all elements of his thought form a consistent whole. For example, labor theory of value of the Two Treatises of Government stands side by side with the demand-and-supply theory developed in a letter he wrote titled Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money. Moreover, Locke anchors property in labor but in the end upholds the unlimited accumulation of wealth.

On price theory

Locke’s general theory of value and price is a supply and demand theory, which was set out in a letter to a Member of Parliament in 1691, titled Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money.[16] Supply is quantity and demand is rent. “The price of any commodity rises or falls by the proportion of the number of buyer and sellers.” and “that which regulates the price... [of goods] is nothing else but their quantity in proportion to their rent.” The quantity theory of money forms a special case of this general theory. His idea is based on “money answers all things” (Ecclesiastes) or “rent of money is always sufficient, or more than enough,” and “varies very little…” Regardless of whether the demand for money is unlimited or constant, Locke concludes that as far as money is concerned, the demand is exclusively regulated by its quantity. He also investigates the determinants of demand and supply. For supply, goods in general are considered valuable because they can be exchanged, consumed and they must be scarce. For demand, goods are in demand because they yield a flow of income. Locke develops an early theory of capitalization, such as land, which has value because “by its constant production of saleable commodities it brings in a certain yearly income.” Demand for money is almost the same as demand for goods or land; it depends on whether money is wanted as medium of exchange or as loanable funds. For medium of exchange “money is capable by exchange to procure us the necessaries or conveniences of life.” For loanable funds, “it comes to be of the same nature with land by yielding a certain yearly income … or interest.”

Monetary thoughts

Locke distinguishes two functions of money, as a "counter" to measure value, and as a "pledge" to lay claim to goods. He believes that silver and gold, as opposed to paper money, are the appropriate currency for international transactions. Silver and gold, he says, are treated to have equal value by all of humanity and can thus be treated as a pledge by anyone, while the value of paper money is only valid under the government which issues it.

Locke argues that a country should seek a favorable balance of trade, lest it fall behind other countries and suffer a loss in its trade. Since the world money stock grows constantly, a country must constantly seek to enlarge its own stock. Locke develops his theory of foreign exchanges, in addition to commodity movements, there are also movements in country stock of money, and movements of capital determine exchange rates. The latter is less significant and less volatile than commodity movements. As for a country’s money stock, if it is large relative to that of other countries, it will cause the country’s exchange to rise above par, as an export balance would do.

He also prepares estimates of the cash requirements for different economic groups (landholders, laborers and brokers). In each group the cash requirements are closely related to the length of the pay period. He argues the brokers – middlemen – whose activities enlarge the monetary circuit and whose profits eat into the earnings of laborers and landholders, had a negative influence on both one's personal and the public economy that they supposedly contributed to.

The self

Locke defines the self as "that conscious thinking thing, (whatever substance, made up of whether spiritual, or material, simple, or compounded, it matters not) which is sensible, or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends".[17] He does not, however, ignore "substance", writing that "the body too goes to the making the man."[18] The Lockean self is therefore a self-aware and self-reflective consciousness that is fixed in a body.

In his Essay, Locke explains the gradual unfolding of this conscious mind. Arguing against both the Augustinian view of man as originally sinful and the Cartesian position, which holds that man innately knows basic logical propositions, Locke posits an "empty" mind, a tabula rasa, which is shaped by experience; sensations and reflections being the two sources of all our ideas.[19]

John Locke's formulation of tabula rasa in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding was influenced by a 17th century Latin translation Philosophus Autodidactus (published by Edward Pococke) of the Arabic Arabic philosophical novel Hayy ibn Yaqzan by the 12th century Andalusian-Islamic philosopher and novelist Ibn Tufail (known as "Abubacer" or "Ebn Tophail" in the West). Ibn Tufail demonstrated the theory of tabula rasa as a thought experiment through his Arabic philosophical novel novel Hayy ibn Yaqzan in which he depicted the development of the mind of a feral child "from a tabula rasa to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society" on a desert island, through experience alone.[20]

Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education is an outline on how to educate this mind: he expresses the belief that education maketh the man, or, more fundamentally, that the mind is an "empty cabinet", with the statement, "I think I may say that of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education."[21]

Locke also wrote that "the little and almost insensible impressions on our tender infancies have very important and lasting consequences."[22] He argued that the "associations of ideas" that one makes when young are more important than those made later because they are the foundation of the self: they are, put differently, what first mark the tabula rasa. In his Essay, in which is introduced both of these concepts, Locke warns against, for example, letting "a foolish maid" convince a child that "goblins and sprites" are associated with the night for "darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined, that he can no more bear the one than the other."[23]

"Associationism", as this theory would come to be called, exerted a powerful influence over eighteenth-century thought, particularly educational theory, as nearly every educational writer warned parents not to allow their children to develop negative associations. It also led to the development of psychology and other new disciplines with David Hartley's attempt to discover a biological mechanism for associationism in his Observations on Man (1749).

List of major works

Major unpublished or posthumous manuscripts

Secondary literature

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Peter Laslett (1988). "Introduction: Locke and Hobbes". Two Treatises on Government. Cambridge University Press. p. 68. ISBN 9780521357302.
  2. ^ Becker, Carl Lotus. The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas Harcourt, Brace, 1922. p. 27
  3. ^ Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. pp. 527–529. ISBN 0-13-158591-6.
  4. ^ Broad, C.D. (2000). Ethics And the History of Philosophy. UK: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22530-2.
  5. ^ Peter Laslett, "Two Treatises of Government and the Revolution of 1688," section III of Laslett's editorial "Introduction" to John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
  6. ^ Britannica Online, s.v. John Locke
  7. ^ "The Three Greatest Men". http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm033.html. Retrieved 2009-06-13. "Jefferson identified Bacon, Locke, and Newton as "the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception". Their works in the physical and moral sciences were instrumental in Jefferson's education and world view."
  8. ^ "The Letters of Thomas Jefferson: 1743–1826 Bacon, Locke, and Newton". http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl74.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-13. "Bacon, Locke and Newton, whose pictures I will trouble you to have copied for me: and as I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical & Moral sciences."
  9. ^ http://explorer.monticello.org/text/index.php?id=82&type=4 Jefferson called Bacon, Newton, and Locke, who had so indelibly shaped his ideas, "my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever produced"
  10. ^ Seigel, Jerrold. The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2005) and Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press (1989).
  11. ^ McGrath, Alistair. 1998. Historical Theology, An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. p.214-5.
  12. ^ page 101, Philosophical Tales, by Martin Cohen, (Blackwell 2008)
  13. ^ Locke, John (1690). Two Treatises of Government (10th edition). Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/trgov10h.htm. Retrieved January 21, 2009.
  14. ^ because Hobbes was not available in libraries due to his presence on the index librorum prohibitorum
  15. ^ Skinner, Quentin Visions of Politics. Cambridge.
  16. ^ John Locke (1691) Some Considerations on the consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money
  17. ^ Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. Roger Woolhouse. New York: Penguin Books (1997), p. 307.
  18. ^ Locke, Essay, p. 306.
  19. ^ The American International Encyclopedia, J.J. Little Company, New York 1954, Volume 9.
  20. ^ G. A. Russell (1994), The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England, pp. 224–262, Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004094598.
  21. ^ Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education and Of the Conduct of the Understanding. Eds. Ruth W. Grant and Nathan Tarcov. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., Inc. (1996), p. 10.
  22. ^ Locke, Some Thoughts, 10.
  23. ^ Locke, Essay, 357.

Further reading

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: John Locke
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Locke

Works

Resources

Figures in the Age of Enlightenment by country
Notable figures
British Colonies Benjamin Franklin · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · Thomas Paine
Prussia and Saxe-Weimar Immanuel Kant · Gotthold Ephraim Lessing · Johann Gottfried von Herder · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · Friedrich von Schiller · Moses Mendelssohn
England Edward Gibbon · Samuel Johnson · Mary Wollstonecraft · John Locke · Isaac Newton · Thomas Hobbes
Scotland Joseph Black · James Boswell · Adam Ferguson · David Hume · Thomas Reid · Adam Smith
France Montesquieu · François Quesnay · Voltaire · Buffon · Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Denis Diderot · Helvétius · Jean le Rond d'Alembert · Baron d'Holbach · Marquis de Sade · Condorcet · Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
Italy Cesare Beccaria
Spain Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos · Benito Jerónimo Feijoo · Antonio de Ulloa
Portugal Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal
Related topics
Atheism · Capitalism · Civil liberties · Critical thinking · Deism · Democracy · Diafotismos · Empiricism · Enlightened absolutism · Free markets · Haskalah · Humanism · Liberalism · Natural philosophy · Rationality · Reason · Sapere aude · Science · Socialism · Secularism · French Encyclopédistes · German Classicism
Mercantilists

Gerard de Malynes · Edward Misselden · Thomas Mun · Jean Bodin · Jean-Baptiste Colbert · Josiah Child · William Petty · John Locke · Charles Davenant · Dudley North · Ferdinando Galiani · James Denham-Steuart · Philipp Wilhelm von Hornick
Metaphysics
Related articles

Cosmology · Epistemology · Ontology · Teleology · Philosophy of psychology · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of space and time · Axiology · Theoretical physics · meta-
Concepts in metaphysics

Action · Abstract object · Being · Category of being · Causality · Change · Choice · Concept · Cogito ergo sum · Embodied cognition · Entity · Essence · Existence · Experience · Form · Idea · Identity · Information · Insight · Intelligence · Intention · Matter · Memetics · Mind · Meaning · Mental representation · Modality · Motion · Necessity · Notion · Object · Pattern · Physical object · Perception · Principle · Properties · Qualia · Quality · Reality · Self · Subject · Substance · Thought · Time · Truth · Type · Unity · Universal · Unobservables · Value · more ...
Metaphysical theories

Anti-realism · Cartesian dualism · Free will (freedom / liberty · gratis vs libre) · Materialism · Meaning of life · Idealism · Existentialism · Essentialism · Libertarianism · Determinism · Naturalism · Monism · Platonic idealism · Hindu idealism · Phenomenalism · Nihilism · Realism · Physicalism · MOQ · Relativism · Scientific realism · Solipsism · Subjectivism · Substance theory · Types
Metaphysicians

Parmenides · Plato · Aristotle · Plotinus · John Duns Scotus · Thomas Aquinas · René Descartes · John Locke · David Hume · Immanuel Kant · Isaac Newton · Arthur Schopenhauer · Baruch Spinoza · Georg W. F. Hegel · George Berkeley · Gottfried Leibniz · Henri Bergson · Friedrich Nietzsche · Charles Sanders Peirce · Ludwig Wittgenstein · Martin Heidegger · Alfred N. Whitehead · Bertrand Russell · Dorothy Emmet · George Edward Moore · Jean-Paul Sartre · Gilbert Ryle · Hilary Putnam · P. F. Strawson · R. G. Collingwood · Adolph Stöhr · Rudolf Carnap · Saul Kripke · Willard V. O. Quine · Donald Davidson · more ...
Portal · Category · Task Force · · Discussion
Epistemology
Related articles

Outline of epistemology · Alethiology · Formal epistemology · Meta-epistemology · Philosophy of perception · Philosophy of science · Faith and rationality · Theaetetus
Concepts in epistemology

Knowledge · Justification · Belief · Perception · A priori knowledge · Induction · Other minds · Analytic-synthetic distinction · Causality · Common sense · Descriptive knowledge · Gettier problem · Objectivity · Analysis · Proposition · Regress argument · Simplicity · Speculative reason · Truth · more... ·
Epistemological theories

Coherentism · Constructivist epistemology · Contextualism · Determinism · Empiricism · Fallibilism · Foundationalism · Holism · Infinitism · Innatism · Internalism and Externalism · Naïve realism · Naturalized epistemology · Objectivist epistemology · Phenomenalism · Positivism · Reductionism · Reliabilism · Representative realism · Rationalism · Skepticism · Theory of Forms · Transcendental idealism · Uniformitarianism
Epistemologists

Thomas Aquinas · Robert Audi · A.J. Ayer · George Berkeley · Laurence Bonjour · René Descartes · Edmund Gettier · Alvin Goldman · Nelson Goodman · Paul Grice · David Hume · Immanuel Kant · Søren Kierkegaard · John Locke · George Edward Moore · Robert Nozick · Alvin Plantinga · Plato · Louis Pojman · Peter Strawson · W.V.O. Quine · Bertrand Russell · Ludwig Wittgenstein · Vienna Circle ·
Portal · Category · Task Force · · Discussion
Social and Political Philosophy
Related articles

Philosophy of economics · Philosophy of history · Jurisprudence · Philosophy of social science · Philosophy of love · Philosophy of sex
Social concepts

Society · War · Law · Justice · Peace · Rights · Revolution · Civil disobedience · Democracy · Social contract · more...
Social theories

National liberalism · Libertarianism · Authoritarianism · Liberalism · Socialism · Utilitarianism · Conflict theory
Social and political philosophers

Plato · Augustine of Hippo · Marsilius of Padua · Niccolò Machiavelli · Hugo Grotius · Jacques Maritain · Montesquieu · Auguste Comte · Bernard Bosanquet · Herbert Spencer · Nicolas Malebranche · Émile Durkheim · George Santayana · Josiah Royce · Confucius · Thomas Hobbes · Gottfried Leibniz · David Hume · Immanuel Kant · Jean-Jacques Rousseau · John Locke · Adam Smith · Jeremy Bentham · John Stuart Mill · Karl Marx · Henry David Thoreau · Isaiah Berlin · Michel Foucault · Giovanni Gentile · Mohandas Gandhi · John Rawls · Karl Popper · Jürgen Habermas · Robert Nozick · Noam Chomsky · Slavoj Žižek
Portal · Category · Task Force · Discussion ·
Persondata
NAME Locke, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION English philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1632)
PLACE OF BIRTH Wrington, Somerset, England
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1704
PLACE OF DEATH Essex, England

Categories: Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford | Christian philosophers | Classical liberals | Early modern philosophers | Empiricists | English Anglicans | English medical doctors | English political philosophers | Enlightenment philosophers | Epistemologists | Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford | Fellows of the Royal Society | Old Westminsters | People from Wrington | Philosophers of language | Philosophers of law | Political theorists | 1632 births | 1704 deaths

<<Table of Contents | Show All>>

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Thu Feb 4 15:49:02 2010. [ refresh local cache ]
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

[Hide]▼
[Hide]▲