An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a work by John Locke concerning

the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. It first appeared in 1689

(although dated 1690) with the printed title An Essay Concerning Humane
Understanding. He describes the mind at birth as a blank slate (tabula rasa,
although he did not use those actual words) filled later through experience. The
essay was one of the principal sources of empiricism in modern philosophy, and
influenced many enlightenment philosophers, such as David Hume and George
Berkeley.

Book I of the Essay is Locke's attempt to refute the rationalist notion of innate ideas.
Book II sets out Locke's theory of ideas, including his distinction between passively
acquired simple ideas—such as "red", "sweet", "round"—and actively built complex
ideas, such as numbers, causes and effects, abstract ideas, ideas of substances,
identity, and diversity. Locke also distinguishes between the truly existing primary
qualities of bodies, like shape, motion and the arrangement of minute particles, and
the secondary qualities that are "powers to produce various sensations in us"[1] such
as "red" and "sweet." These secondary qualities, Locke claims, are dependent on
the primary qualities. He also offers a theory of personal identity, offering a largely
psychological criterion. Book III is concerned with language, and Book IV with
knowledge, including intuition, mathematics, moral philosophy, natural
philosophy ("science"), faith, and opinion.

Content
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Book I
[edit]
The main thesis is that there are "No Innate Principles." Locke wrote, "If we will
attentively consider new-born children, we shall have little reason to think, that they
bring many ideas into the world with them." Rather, "by degrees, afterwards, ideas
come into their minds; and...they get no more, nor no other, than what experience,
and the observation of things, that come in their way, furnish them with." [2] Book I of
the Essay is an attack on nativism or the doctrine of innate ideas; Locke indeed
sought to rebut a prevalent view of innate ideas that was, in his words, an
"established opinion" firmly held by philosophers of his time.[3] While he allowed that
some ideas are in the mind from an early age, he argued that those ideas are
furnished by the senses starting in the womb—for instance, differences between
colours or tastes. If we have a universal understanding of a concept like sweetness,
it is not because this is an innate idea, but because we are all exposed to sweet
tastes at an early age.[4]

One of Locke's fundamental arguments against innate ideas is the very fact that
there is no truth to which all people attest. He took the time to argue against a
number of propositions that rationalists offer as universally accepted truth, for
instance the principle of identity, pointing out that at the very least children and idiots
are often unaware of these propositions.[5] In anticipating a counterargument, namely
the use of reason to comprehend already existent innate ideas, Locke states that "by
this means, there will be no difference between the maxims of the mathematicians,
and theorems they deduce from them; all must be equally allowed innate; they being
all discoveries

Book II
[edit]
Whereas Book I is intended to reject the doctrine of innate ideas proposed
by Descartes and the rationalists, Book II explains that every idea is derived from
experience either by sensation—i.e. direct sensory information—or reflection—i.e.
"the perception of the operations of our own mind within us, as it is employed about
the ideas it has got."

In Book II, Locke focuses on the ideas of substances and qualities, in which the
former are "an unknown support of qualities" and latter have the "power to produce
ideas in our mind."[7] Substance is what holds qualities together,
while qualities themselves allow us to perceive and identify objects. A substance
consists of bare particulars and does not have properties in themselves except the
ability to support qualities. Substances are "nothing but the assumption of an
unknown support for a group of qualities that produce simple ideas in us."[8] Despite
his explanation, the existence of substances is still questionable as they cannot
necessarily be "perceived" by themselves and can only be sensed through the
qualities.

In terms of qualities, Locke divides such into primary and secondary, whereby the
former give our minds ideas based on sensation and actual experience. In contrast,
secondary qualities allow our minds to understand something based on reflection, in
which we associate what we perceive with other ideas of our own.[9]

Furthermore, Book II is also a systematic argument for the existence of an intelligent

being:

Thus, from the consideration of ourselves, and what we infallibly find in our own
constitutions, our reason leads us to the knowledge of this certain and evident truth,
that there is an eternal, most powerful, and most knowing being; which whether any
one will please to call God, it matters not!
Locke contends that consciousness is what distinguishes selves, and thus,[10]

…in this alone consists personal Identity, i.e. the sameness of rational Being: And as
far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past Action or Thought,
so far reaches the Identity of that Person; it is the same self now it was then; and 'tis
by the same self with this present one that now reflects on it, that that Action was
done.

Reaction, response, and influence

[edit]
Many of Locke's views were sharply criticized by rationalists and empiricists alike. In
1704, rationalist Gottfried Leibniz wrote a response to Locke's work in the form of a
chapter-by-chapter rebuttal, titled the Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement
humain (New Essays on Human Understanding). Leibniz was critical of a number of
Locke's views in the Essay, including his rejection of innate ideas;
his skepticism about species classification; and the possibility that matter might think,
among other things. Leibniz thought that Locke's commitment to ideas of reflection in
the Essay ultimately made him incapable of escaping the nativist position or being
consistent in his empiricist doctrines of the mind's passivity.

Empiricist George Berkeley was equally critical of Locke's views in the Essay.
Berkeley's most notable criticisms of Locke were first published in A Treatise
Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, in which Berkeley holds that
Locke's conception of abstract ideas are incoherent and lead to
severe contradictions. He also argues that Locke's conception of material substance
was unintelligible, a view which he also later advanced in the Three Dialogues
Between Hylas and Philonous.

At the same time, Locke's work provided crucial groundwork for future empiricists
such as David Hume. John Wynne published An Abridgment of Mr. Locke's Essay
concerning the Human Understanding, with Locke's approval, in 1696.
Likewise, Louisa Capper wrote An Abridgment of Locke's Essay concerning the
Human Understanding, published in 1811.

Some European philosophers saw the book's impact on psychology as comparable

to Isaac Newton's impact upon science. Voltaire wrote:[12]

Just as a skilled anatomist explains the workings of the human body, so does
Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding give the natural history of
consciousness.… So many philosophers having written the romance of the soul, a
sage has arrived who has modestly written its history.

Editions
[edit]

 Locke, John. 1690. An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (1st ed.). 1

vols. London: Thomas Basset.
 — 1894. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, edited by Alexander
Campbell Fraser. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
 — 1722. Works, Vol 1. London: Taylor.
See also
[edit]

 Second Treatise on Civil Government

 Turtles all the way down
References
[edit]

1. ^ Essay, II, viii, 10

2. ^ Essay, I, iv, 2.
3. ^ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding,
Volume I., by John Locke". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
4. ^ Essay, I, ii, 15.
 5. ^ Essay, I, iv, 3.
6. ^ Essay, I, ii, 8.
7. ^ Locke, John. "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book II:
Ideas" (PDF). Early Modern Texts. Jonathan Bennett. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
8. ^ Kemerling, Garth. "Complex Ideas". A guide to Locke's Essays. Creative
Commons. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
9. ^ Kemerling, Garth. "Locke: The Origin of Ideas". A guide to Locke's Essays.
Creative Commons. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
10. ^ Gordon-Roth, 2019
11. ^ Arnauld, Antoine, and Pierre Nicole. 1662. "Observations importantes touchant la
définition des noms." Ch. 13 in La logique ou l'Art de penser, part 1. Paris: Jean
Guignart, Charles Savreux, & Jean de Lavnay.
12. ^ Gillispie, Charles Coulston (1960). The Edge of Objectivity: An Essay in the
History of Scientific Ideas. Princeton University Press. p. 159. ISBN 0-691-02350-6.

Bibliography
[edit]

 Clapp, James Gordon. 1967. "John Locke." Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New

York: Macmillan.
 Uzgalis, William. [2001] 2018. "John Locke" (revised ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia
of Philosophy. Retrieved on 16 June 2020.
 Ayers, Michael. 1991. Locke: Epistemology and Ontology. 2 vols.
London: Routledge.
 Bennett, Jonathan. 1971. Locke, Berkeley, Hume: Central Themes.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 Bizzell, Patricia, and Bruce Herzberg, eds. 2001. The Rhetorical Tradition (2nd
ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
 Chappell, Vere, ed. 1994. The Cambridge Companion to Locke.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Fox, Christopher. 1988. Locke and the Scriblerians. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
 Gordon-Roth, Jessica (2019). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Locke on Personal
Identity". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
 Jolley, Nicholas. 1999. Locke: His Philosophical Thought. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
 Lowe, E. J. 1995. Locke on Human Understanding. London: Routledge.
 Yolton, John. John Locke and the Way of Ideas. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1956.
 — 1970. John Locke and the Compass of Human Understanding. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
External links
[edit]

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