John Locke - A Short Biography

JOHN LOCKE

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All ideas are either simple or complex. Whereas complex ideas can be analyzed, or broken down, into the simple or complex ideas of which they are composed, simple ideas cannot be. The complex idea of a snowball, for example, can be analyzed into the simple ideas of whiteness, roundness, and solidity among possibly others , but none of the latter ideas can be analyzed into anything simpler. The project of analyzing supposedly complex ideas or concepts subsequently became an important theme in philosophy, especially within the analytic tradition, which began at the turn of the 20th century and became dominant at Cambridge , Oxford , and many other universities, especially in the English-speaking world.

In the course of his account, Locke raises a host of related issues, many of which have since been the source of much debate. Primary qualities include size, shape, weight, and solidity, among others, and secondary qualities include colour, taste, and smell. However, ideas of secondary qualities do not resemble any property in the object; they are instead a product of the power that the object has to cause certain kinds of ideas in the mind of the perceiver.

Locke discussed another problem that had not before received sustained attention: Assuming one is the same person as the person who existed last week or the person who was born many years ago, what fact makes this so? Locke was careful to distinguish the notion of sameness of person from the related notions of sameness of body and sameness of man, or human being.

Sameness of body requires identity of matter, and sameness of human being depends on continuity of life as would the sameness of a certain oak tree from acorn to sapling to maturity ; but sameness of person requires something else. Ideas, Locke observes, can become linked in the mind in such a way that having one idea immediately leads one to form another idea, even though the two ideas are not necessarily connected with each other.

Instead, they are linked through their having been experienced together on numerous occasions in the past. The psychological tendency to associate ideas through experience, Locke says, has important implications for the education of children. In order to learn to adopt good habits and to avoid bad ones, children must be made to associate rewards with good behaviour and punishments with bad behaviour.

Investigations into the associations that people make between ideas can reveal much about how human beings think. Through his influence on researchers such as the English physician David Hartley —57 , Locke contributed significantly to the development of the theory of associationism, or associationist psychology, in the 18th century. Association has remained a central topic of inquiry in psychology ever since.

Having shown to his satisfaction that no idea requires for its explanation the hypothesis of innate ideas, Locke proceeds in Book III to examine the role of language in human mental life.

Early years

His discussion is the first sustained philosophical inquiry in modern times into the notion of linguistic meaning. As elsewhere, he begins with rather simple and obvious claims but quickly proceeds to complex and contentious ones. Words , Locke says, stand for ideas in the mind of the person who uses them. It is by the use of words that people convey their necessarily private thoughts to each other.

In addition, Locke insists, nothing exists except particulars, or individual things. Nevertheless, a large number of words are general in their application, applying to many particular things at once. Thus, words must be labels for both ideas of particular things particular ideas and ideas of general things general ideas. The problem is, if everything that exists is a particular, where do general ideas come from? The general idea of a triangle, for example, is the result of abstracting from the properties of specific triangles only the residue of qualities that all triangles have in common—that is, having three straight sides.

John Locke

Although there are enormous problems with this account, alternatives to it are also fraught with difficulties. In Book IV of the Essay , Locke reaches the putative heart of his inquiry, the nature and extent of human knowledge.

His precise definition of knowledge entails that very few things actually count as such for him. In general, he excludes knowledge claims in which there is no evident connection or exclusion between the ideas of which the claim is composed. Thus, it is possible to know that white is not black whenever one has the ideas of white and black together as when one looks at a printed page , and it is possible to know that the three angles of a triangle equal two right angles if one knows the relevant Euclidean proof.

These are cases only of probability, not knowledge—as indeed is virtually the whole of scientific knowledge, excluding mathematics. Not that such probable claims are unimportant: But for Locke they fall short of genuine knowledge. There are, however, some very important things that can be known. For example, Locke agreed with Descartes that each person can know immediately and without appeal to any further evidence that he exists at the time that he considers it.

John Locke : A Short Biography

One can also know immediately that the colour of the print on a page is different from the colour of the page itself—i. It can also be proved from self-evident truths by valid argument by an argument whose conclusion cannot be false if its premises are true that a first cause , or God, must exist.

Various moral claims also can be demonstrated—e. People often make mistakes or poor judgments in their dealings with the world or each other because they are unclear about the concepts they use or because they fail to analyze the relevant ideas. One major problem that the Essay appeared to raise is that if ideas are indeed the immediate objects of experience, how is it possible to know that there is anything beyond them—e.

In the more skeptical age of the 18th century, this argument became less and less convincing. This issue dominated epistemology in the 18th century. Its importance in the English-speaking world of the 18th century can scarcely be overstated. Along with the works of Descartes, it constitutes the foundation of modern Western philosophy. Some Thoughts Concerning Education , for example, remains a standard source in the philosophy of education. It emphasizes the importance of both physical and mental development—both exercise and study.

The first requirement is to instill virtue, wisdom, and good manners. This is to be followed by book learning. For the latter, Locke gives a list of recommended texts on Latin, French, mathematics, geography, and history, as well as civil law , philosophy, and natural science. There should also be plenty of scope for recreation, including dancing and riding. Central to all of them is his belief that every individual has within him the abilities necessary to comprehend his duty and to achieve salvation with the aid of the Scriptures.

Locke was constantly trying to steer a course that would allow individuals to accept the essential doctrines of Christianity while retaining a certain freedom of conscience. According to Locke, all Christians must accept Jesus as the Messiah and live in accordance with his teachings. Within this minimum framework, however, differences of worship could and should be tolerated.

Locke was thus in many ways close to the Latitudinarian movement and other liberal theological trends. His influence on Protestant Christian thought for at least the next century was substantial. Locke wrote no major work of moral philosophy.

Just as one can discover from the nature of the triangle that its angles equal two right angles, so this moral order can be discovered by reason and is within the grasp of all human beings. Upon his return he became actively involved in various political projects, including helping to draft the English Bill of Rights , though the version eventually adopted by Parliament did not go as far as he wanted in matters of religious toleration.

He was offered a senior diplomatic post by William but declined.

His health was rarely good, and he suffered especially in the smoky atmosphere of London. He was therefore very happy to accept the offer of his close friend Damaris Masham, herself a philosopher and the daughter of Ralph Cudworth , to make his home with her family at Oates in High Laver, Essex. There he spent his last years revising the Essay and other works, entertaining friends, including Newton , and responding at length to his critics.

After a lengthy period of poor health, he died while Damaris read him the Bible. He was buried in High Laver church. His faith in the salutary, ennobling powers of knowledge justifies his reputation as the first philosopher of the Enlightenment. In a broader context, he founded a philosophical tradition, British empiricism, that would span three centuries. In developing the Whig ideology underlying the exclusion controversy and the Glorious Revolution, he formulated the classic expression of liberalism , which was instrumental in the great revolutions of and His influence remains strongly felt in the West, as the notions of mind, freedom, and authority continue to be challenged and explored.

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Read More on This Topic. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Whereas rationalist philosophers such as Descartes held that the ultimate source of human knowledge is reason, empiricists such as John Locke argued that the source is experience see Rationalism and empiricism. Rationalist accounts of knowledge also typically involved the claim…. It was John Locke , politically the most influential English philosopher, who further developed this doctrine.

His Two Treatises of Government were written to justify the Glorious Revolution of —89, and his Letter Concerning Toleration was written with a plain and easy urbanity,…. Nearly 20 centuries after Aristotle, the English philosopher John Locke adopted the essential elements of the Aristotelian classification of constitutions in his Second Treatise of Civil Government Unlike Aristotle, however, Locke was an unequivocal supporter of political equality, individual liberty, democracy, and majority….

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He published with Friedrich Engels …. Plato, ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates c. Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis. View All Media 5 Images and 1 Video. If you prefer to suggest your own revision of the article, you can go to edit mode requires login. In his friend the Earl was tried for treason. Although Shaftesbury was acquitted, the Earl decided to flee England anyway to escape further persecution. He fled to Holland where William and Mary ruled but had some claim to the English throne.

Owing to his close association with the Earl, Locke also fled fled to Holland in He returned to England in about when William and Mary were invited to retake the reign of England in what historians call the Bloodless Revolution. Eventually Locke returned to Oates in Essex where he retired. He lived there until his death in Natural Rights Locke wrote and developed the philosophy that there was no legitimate government under the divine right of kings theory. The Divine Right of Kings theory, as it was called, asserted that God chose some people to rule on earth in his will.

Therefore, whatever the monarch decided was the will of God. When you criticized the ruler, you were in effect challenging God. This was a very powerful philosophy for the existing ruler. But, Locke did not believe in that and wrote his theory to challenge it.

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