TGM Philosopher John Locke

This great app includes complete philosophical work of John Locke 29 August 1632 - 28 October

1704 who was an English philosopher and physician, widely known and regarded as one of the

most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of

Liberalism".Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition

of Sir Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory. His philosophical

work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings

influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the

American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are

reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.


Major works:

Locke, by virtue of his temperament and mode of existence, was a man of great circumspection.

None of his major writings was published until he was nearly 60. In 1690 he brought out his

major works: Two Treatises and the Essay Concerning Human Understanding . But the four books

of the Essay were the culmination of 20 years of intellectual labor. He relates that,

together with a few friends, probably in 1670, a discussion arose concerning the basis of

morality and religion. The conclusion was that they were unable to resolve the question until

an investigation had been made to see "what objects our understandings were or were not

fitted to deal with." Thus the aim of this work is "to inquire into the origin, certainty,

and extent of human knowledge, together with the grounds of belief, opinion, and assent."

The procedure employed is what he called the "historical, plain method," which consists of

observations derived from external sensations and the internal processes of reflection or

introspection. This psychological definition of experience as sensation and reflection

shifted the focus of philosophy from an analysis of reality to an exploration of the mind.

The new perspective was Locke's major contribution, and it dominated European thought for at

least two centuries. But if knowledge consists entirely of experience, then the objects of

cognition are ideas. The term "idea" was ambiguously defined by Locke as "whatsoever is the

object of the understanding when a man thinks." This broad use means that sensations,

memories, imaginings, and feelings as well as concepts are ideas insofar as they are mental.

The danger of Locke's epistemology is the inherent skepticism contained in a technique which

describes what is "in" the mind. For if everything is an idea, then it is difficult to

distinguish between true and false, real and imaginary, impressed sensations and expressed

concepts. Thus Locke, and the subsequent history of philosophy, had to wrestle with the

dilemma that a psychological description of the origin of ideas seriously undermines the

extent of their objective validity.

Nonetheless the intention of the Essay was positive in that Locke wished to establish the

dependence of all human knowledge upon everyday experience or sensation. The alternative

theory of innate ideas is vigorously attacked. Although it is not historically certain

whether anyone seriously maintained such a doctrine, Locke's general criticism lends indirect

support to an experiential view of knowledge. Innatism can be understood in a naive way to

mean that there are ideas of which we are fully conscious at birth or which are universally

acknowledged, so that the mind possesses a disposition to think in terms of certain ideas.

The first position is refuted by observation of children, and the second by the fact that

there are no acknowledged universal ideas to which everyone agrees. The sophisticated version

falls into contradiction by maintaining that we are conscious of an unconscious disposition.