An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is one of John Locke's two most famous works, the other being his Second Treatise on Civil Government. First appearing in 1689, the essay concerns the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. He describes the mind at birth as a blank sheet, or tabula rasa, being filled later through experiences. The essay was one of the principal sources of empiricism in modern philosophy, and influenced philosophers such as Hume and Kant.

Related Topics:
John Locke - Second Treatise on Civil Government - 1689 - Tabula rasa - Empiricism - Philosopher - Hume - Kant

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Locke drafted the Essay over a period of about eighteen years. In the "Epistle to the Reader" Locke states that the germ of the essay sprung from a conversation with friends. At a point where this discourse seemed stuck, Locke remarked that it could not proceed without a close examination of "our own abilities and ? what objects our understandings were, or were not, fitted to deal with." This conversation occurred around 1671, and in that year Locke formulated two drafts of the Essay. He would continue to work on it for nearly two decades, clarifying and expanding his basic position. Though dated 1690, the book actually first appeared in 1689. {{inote|Encyclopedia of Philosophy, p.489}}

Related Topics:
1671 - 1690

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Book II of the Essay sets out Locke's theory of ideas, including his distinction between passively acquired simple ideas, such as "red," "sweet," "round," etc., 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" {{inote|Essay, II.viii.10}} such as "red" and "sweet." These secondary qualities, Locke claims, are dependent on the primary qualities. Book III is concerned with language, and Book IV with knowledge, including intuition, mathematics, moral philosophy, natural philosophy ("science"), faith and opinion.

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