Description

This great app includes completephilosophicalwork of John Locke 29 August 1632 – 28 October

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

most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly knownasthe "Father of

Liberalism".Considered one of the first of theBritishempiricists, following the tradition

of Sir Francis Bacon, he is equally important to socialcontracttheory. His philosophical

work greatly affected the development of epistemologyandpolitical philosophy. His writings

influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many ScottishEnlightenmentthinkers, as well as the

American revolutionaries. His contributions toclassicalrepublicanism and liberal theory are

reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.

Major works:

Locke, by virtue of his temperament and mode of existence, wasaman of great circumspection.

None of his major writings was published until he was nearly60.In 1690 he brought out his

major works: Two Treatises and the Essay ConcerningHumanUnderstanding . But the four books

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

together with a few friends, probably in 1670, a discussionaroseconcerning the basis of

morality and religion. The conclusion was that they wereunableto resolve the question until

an investigation had been made to see "what objectsourunderstandings were or were not

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

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

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

observations derived from external sensations and theinternalprocesses of reflection or

introspection. This psychological definition of experienceassensation and reflection

shifted the focus of philosophy from an analysis of reality toanexploration of the mind.

The new perspective was Locke's major contribution, anditdominated European thought for at

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

cognition are ideas. The term "idea" was ambiguously definedbyLocke as "whatsoever is the

object of the understanding when a man thinks." This broadusemeans that sensations,

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

The danger of Locke's epistemology is the inherentskepticismcontained in a technique which

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

distinguish between true and false, real and imaginary,impressedsensations and expressed

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

dilemma that a psychological description of the origin ofideasseriously undermines the

extent of their objective validity.

Nonetheless the intention of the Essay was positive in thatLockewished to establish the

dependence of all human knowledge upon everyday experienceorsensation. The alternative

theory of innate ideas is vigorously attacked. Although it isnothistorically certain

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

support to an experiential view of knowledge. Innatism canbeunderstood in a naive way to

mean that there are ideas of which we are fully consciousatbirth or which are universally

acknowledged, so that the mind possesses a disposition tothinkin terms of certain ideas.

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

there are no acknowledged universal ideas to whicheveryoneagrees. The sophisticated version

falls into contradiction by maintaining that we are consciousofan unconscious disposition.