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Sophia on the web A Resource Guide for Philosophy Students Created by Jennifer Leslie Torgerson, MA This
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John Locke 1632 – 1704
CE Bibliography Baird and Kaufmann. Philosophical
Classics: From Plato to Nietzsche,
2nd Edition. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997 [1994]). Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy: Book Two. (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1985 [1944]). __________, A History of Western
Philosophy: Hobbes to Hume, 2nd
Edition. (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1980 [1952]). Daniel Kolak. The Mayfield Anthology of Western
Philosophy. (Mountain View,
CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1998). John Locke. Second
Treatise of Government; C. B. Macpherson, Editor. (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1980). __________, Two Treatises of
Government; Peter Laslett, Editor. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004 [1960]). Louis P. Pojman. Classics of Philosophy. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998). T. V. Smith and Marjorie Grene. Philosophers Speak for Themselves: From Descartes to Locke. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press,
1967 [1940]). The
principle works of Locke
(Bio. material from Cahn, Steven, Classics of
Western Philosophy) "John Locke was born in Somerset, England. He
was educated first at Westminster School and then at Oxford, where he
received his master's degree in 1658. He remained at Oxford to teach and
study various subjects, among them medicine. In 1667, he went to London with
his friend Lord Asley, later Earl of Shaftsbury,
whom he first served as physician and later as secretary and advisor. During
this period he began the nearly twenty years' labor which culminated in his
major work, Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In 1675 poor health
dictated a visit to France, where he spent four years at his studies. Locke
returned to England in 1679, but his political fortunes declined along with
Shaftsbury's, and he fled to Holland in 1683. He returned to England when
William of Orange took the throne in 1689. In 1691 he retired to the serenity
of Oat‘s in Essex, where he spent the remainder of his life." Locke's important works include two: Essay
Concerning Human Understanding, (1690), although revised four times; and Two
Treatises of Government (1690), a discussion of the foundations of
political authority. Objective nature of empiricism (1) There is a distinction between the knower and the
thing known. (Contrast with subjectivism). (2) Truth or verification of facts or objects depends
on being experienced by other human beings, (or by more than one). (3) Empiricists depend on the regularity and order of
nature to make predictions about the behavior of things in the future. Locke was an empiricist. In the first chapter of the
first book, of his 'Essay', Locke demonstrates that ideas are not innate, as
the rationalist would have you believe. Locke states: "For to imprint
anything on the mind without the mind's perceiving it, seems to me hardly
intelligible." (Bk 1, Ch 1, §5). Since
children and idiots do not have knowledge of 'What is, is" (law of
identity) and 'it is impossible for the same thing to be and not be' (law of
non-contradiction) shows that such ideas are not naturally imprinted upon the
mind. And so what if an idea is universally asserted to. This does not
demonstrate that such ideas are innate. (Bk 1, Ch.
1, §3). Book 2 is a discussion of what Locke thinks ideas are.
First he tells us from where these ideas come. "Let us suppose the mind
to be...white paper...without any ideas: How comes it to be furnished? ...
Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? .....from
EXPERIENCE." (Bk 2, Ch 1, §2). What are ideas according to Locke? Locke states that an
idea is: "whatever it is the mind can be employed about in
thinking." (Introduction, §8). All ideas, according to Locke, come from either
sensation or reflection. Ideas are about (a) external sensible objects; or
(b) the internal operations of the mind, or reflection. Locke gave names to
these two types of ideas, and also thought that all ideas must be one or the
other in kind. Ideas of Sensation, according to Locke, have their source in
the great many sensible things detected by our five senses. This is a source
of a great many of our ideas, but there is another source. Ideas of
Reflection have their source inside each man, and have nothing to do with
sensible objects. These ideas are derived through operations of the mind.
Judging, willing, and imagining are operations of the mind. So,
therefore, Locke believed that there are two types of ideas: those provided
by external objects, and those produced by the operations of the mind. primary qualities: are about the primary qualities of an object, and are about
qualities of matter such as form, extension, motion, number, and so on.
Therefore, primary qualities are objective in nature. secondary qualities: are about the qualities of an object such as color,
tastes, sound, odors, and the like. These secondary qualities are not in the
material substance; they are in the mind or they are the way in which the
object affects the mind or the knower, and they vary from person to person.
Therefore, secondary qualities are subjective in nature. Locke accepted the existence of spiritual substance
(God), ideas (mind), and material substance (body). Some
criticisms of Locke: Locke's epistemological theory that there are Ideas of
Sensation and Ideas of Reflection and both of these are composed of simple
and complex ideas represents an epistemological dualism. Epistemological
dualism is a dualism of the knower (mind) and what is known (ideas). The
Knower may be material substance, and so may the ideas, depending on your
point of view. Materialists would view everything in terms of material. But
idealists would view everything in terms of idea. But Locke is an empiricist;
what sort of view did he develop? Locke thought that there were two types of
ideas: Sensation and Reflection. This can be seen as another dualism, where
the Ideas of Sensation are empirical in nature and the Ideas of Reflection
are rationalistic in nature. But Locke most certainly makes a distinction
between the knower and the thing known. This is very similar to Berkeley's
position that there are perceivers and perceptions. But has Locke not been entirely too rationalistic for
an empiricist? His Ideas of Reflection are not derived directly from
experience, but are those ideas we become aware of through introspection, for
example thinking, willing, and believing. Even his notion of substance cannot
be known by sensation or reflection, since it is the thing in which qualities
are held to subsist, rather than itself being a quality to which there
corresponds an idea. Simple ideas: have no other ideas contained within
them, and like atoms cannot be created nor destroyed; and are ideas such as
yellow, hot, sweet. Complex ideas: are compounded out of simple ideas, and
the mind is quite capable of imagining complex arrangements of simple ideas
that do not in fact correspond to anything in the world, for example an
unicorn. primary qualities: are about the primary qualities of an object, and are
about qualities of matter such as form, extension, motion, number, and so on.
Therefore, primary qualities are objective in nature. secondary qualities: are about the qualities of an object such as color,
tastes, sound, odors, and the like. These secondary qualities are not in the
material substance; they are in the mind or they are the way in which the
object affects the mind or the knower, and they vary from person to person.
Therefore, secondary qualities are subjective in nature. Locke was not the first to make the distinction between
primary and secondary qualities. This distinction had already been drawn by
Galileo, Descartes, and Boyle. Locke also accepted the existence of spiritual
substance, ideas, and material substance, just like Descartes had. Descartes
also thought that the fundamental unit of knowledge to be that of intuition, and Locke also agreed. We can also know things
by deduction or by demonstration. We can have certain knowledge through our
senses of the existence of particular physical objects we see, touch, etc.
But where Locke differs from Descartes is that Locke held that we can have no
certain knowledge of general truths about the world. Locke's immediate successor, Berkeley, had the most
severe criticism of Locke. Locke had gotten himself into an egocentric
predicament. An egocentric predicament is a situation in which all one knows,
or can know, is one's own ideas. There is no way to determine whether these
ideas about the world actually correspond to the world that they are supposed
to be about. It may seem that all Berkeley knows is his own ideas as well.
But at least he did not base his knowledge upon the objects of the external
world, and yet leave us no certainty whether or not our ideas actually
correspond to the world. We cannot compare the ideas and the objects to see
if they match. Locke really felt that we did, as said before, know the
particular objects we saw, touched, etc. Berkeley tried to solve this problem by making things
ideas. This way there had to be a necessary correspondence, because things
were merely ideas, and nothing more. Locke's Liberalism and Social Contract Theory Second Treatise of Government (1690) The two treatises were published anonymously. natural law: The rationally knowable morality which is founded in God's will
for His creatures. Moral law is not innate, but deduced from experience. state of nature: The human condition of natural freedoms and rights prior
to the imposition of social organization and regulation (or social contract).
It is a state, therefore, that may be thought of as either an alleged
historical fact, or a hypothetical claim about what would be or would have
been the case, given certain conditions that may or may not have occurred. "The state of nature has a law to govern it, which
obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who
will but consult it, that being all equal and independent , no one ought to
harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions[.]" Ch. 2, § 6. Locke, like Hobbes, introduces the "natural"
condition of mankind not as an historical condition existing before the
emergence of civil society, but as a logical abstraction from essential
nature of man. Though Locke does later say that it may also have been an
historical prior condition (§100-112) he presents it as a first logical
deduction from the supposed nature of man and the supposed intentions of the
Creator, which in turn are deduced from observable biological needs of man. social contract: The agreement of a group of people (every one of them) to
establish social organizations and regulations for the preservation of basic
freedoms and rights. tacit consent: The consent and support of social organizations and
regulations by virtue of an individual's continued participation in them. traditional liberalism The traditional notion of liberalism has been
challenged in this century, and new meanings have been applied to it. The
result is that the term today is ambiguous, and everyone applying the label
must specify exactly what they mean. Traditional liberalism gives primacy to
the individual and his rights, where prior primacy was given to the state. Locke built his assumption these human beings are by
nature moral beings and that there are natural moral rules that they ought to
obey. People are born free and equal, with the capacity to make rational
choices. They are morally obligated to respect the freedom and
self-determination of other people and deal with them on the basis of
equality. On these premises Locke fashioned his central principle of the
natural rights of every individual. To maintain their natural rights, people
voluntarily give up some of their freedom and enter into a social contract to
create a political authority capable of preserving these rights and
restraining transgressors. It was Locke's view that people of majority
consent draw up a contract for the establishment of a government and obligate
them to abide by the decisions of the majority. Government authority stems
from the act of making a contract, and the power thus is limited by the terms
of the contract and is subject to continuous review by the citizens involved.
The contract is specific and strictly limited, and the power given up to the
government is not absolute or final. According to Locke, the basic rights that people seek
to preserve by political means are the rights of life, liberty, and property.
The individual's right to private property is one of the most important
guarantees of government. One of the fundamental moral rights retained by the
individual is the right to challenge and resist authority. Locke favored a
constitutional, representative government and denied the legitimacy of any
permanent or absolute ruler. Locke's ideas had a profound impact on the
framing of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. |
