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Locke – Essay I
Charles Manekin
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Topics of Discussion
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Life and Works
God
Pre-Established Harmony
“All’s for the Best in This Best of All
Possible Worlds”
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Life
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Born 1629 (3 years before Spinoza)
Entered Christ Church College in 1652; ba in
1656, ma in 1658, graduated as a bachelor of
medicine only in 1674.
Became attached to Earl of Shaftesbury, later the
Lord Chancellor, in 1666. After 1675, he traveled
quite a bit. Fled to Holland
Returned to England (1689) after the Glorious
Revolution
Serious of government jobs, lived mostly in the
country (Essex) till death in 1704.
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Works
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Two Treatises on Government, much of it
written in 1672, revised and published
after the return to England. It is
considered to be the founding document
of modern liberalism and was quite
influential; parts are cited verbatim in the
Declaration of Independence.
Letter Concerning Toleration, written
during Holland stay.
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
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Setting the Limits of Human
Understanding
For I thought that the first Step towards
satisfying the several Enquiries, the Mind of
Man was apt to run into, was, to take a Survey
of our own Understandings, examine our own
Powers, and see to what Things they were
adapted. Till that was done, I suspected that we
began at the wrong end, and in vain sought for
Satisfaction in a quiet and secure Possession of
Truths, that most concern'd us whilst we let
loose our Thoughts into the vast Ocean of
Being,as if all the boundless Extent, were the
natural and undoubted Possessions of our
Understandings, wherein there was nothing that
escaped its Decisions, or that escaped its
Comprehension.
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Setting the Limits of Human
Understanding
Thus Men, extending their Enquiries beyond
their Capacities, and letting their
Thoughts wander into those depths
where they can find no sure Footing; ‘tis
no Wonder, that they raise Questions
and multiply Disputes, which never
coming to any clear Resolution, are
proper to only continue and increase
their Doubts, and to confirm them at last
in a perfect Skepticism.
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Setting the Limits of Human
Understanding
Whereas were the Capacities of our
Understanding well considered, the
Extent of our Knowledge once
discovered, and the Horizon found, which
sets the boundary between the
enlightened and the dark Parts of
Things; between what is and what is not
comprehensible by us, Men would
perhaps with less scruple acquiesce in
the avow'd Ignorance of the one; and
employ their Thoughts and Discourse,
with more Advantage and Satisfaction in
the other.
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The Purpose of the Essay
This, therefore, being my purpose- to inquire into
the original, certainty, and extent of human
knowledge, together with the grounds and
degrees of belief, opinion, and assent;- I shall
not at present meddle with the physical
consideration of the mind; or trouble myself to
examine wherein its essence consists; or by what
motions of our spirits or alterations of our bodies
we come to have any sensation by our organs, or
any ideas in our understandings; and whether
those ideas do in their formation, any or all of
them, depend on matter or not. These are
speculations which, however curious and
entertaining, I shall decline, as lying out of my
way in the design I am now upon.
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The Task of the Essay
The commonwealth of learning is not at this time
without master-builders, whose mighty designs,
in advancing the sciences, will leave lasting
monuments to the admiration of posterity: but
every one must not hope to be a Boyle or a
Sydenham; and in an age that produces such
masters as the great Huygenius and the
incomparable Mr. Newton, with some others of
that strain, it is ambition enough to be employed
as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a
little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies
in the way to knowledge
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The Character of the Essay
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A “Natural History” of the Mind.
A Work on
• Logic.
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The Psychologistic Turn in Logic
• Psychology (but not dealing with
morality much)
• Epistemology
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Book One – Against Innate Ideas
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Innate ideas: “some primary
notions...Characters as it were
stamped upon the Mind of Man,
which the Soul receives in its very
first Being; and brings into the world
with it.”
No innate speculative principles,
moral principles, or innate ideas
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No Innate Speculative Principles
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“The Whole is Greater than the Part”;
“Whatever is, is.” “It is Impossible
for the Same thing to Be and Not to
Be.”
They are neither immediately
perceived.
Nor dispositional – How would we
distinguish between innate and
newly discovered truths.
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No Innate Moral Principles
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“Repay a gift with gratitude”
These principles are not self-evident,
nor are they exempt from the
previous objections against innate
speculative principles
Even thieves know that they should
obey contracts. How do they know
this.
Much disagreement on morality.
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No Innate Ideas
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For Principles to be Innate, their
Ideas must be Innate.
Is “Impossibility” Innate? The
“Whole” or the “Part”?
What about the idea of God?
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