john locke
TRANSCRIPT
John Locke’s Major
Works Influences
LegacyMs. Nanelyn T. Bontoyan
ReporterDr. Shirley A. Padua
Professor
Major WorksEssay Concerning Human Understanding In his Essay, Locke tries to determine the limits of our understanding,
discussing the sources of human knowledge and what can and what cannot be known.
He argues that people are not born with innate knowledge, but rather that their mind is a tabula rasa, a blank slate, on which the thread of experience writes.
All of humanity is born equal in the realms of natural intelligence.
Two Treatises of Government It strive to disprove the idea of the divine rights of kings. Locke
argues for the natural rights of man, insisting that government is a social contract in which we submit some of our rights to a central administration while keeping others.
The Two Treatises of Government was written during the times of plotting against Charles II.
They were published later, after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and are often taken as Locke's attempt to justify revolt.
Major Works
Letters on Toleration
Separation between church and state, arguing in the defence of those who do not join the Church of England and were persecuted by their government for it.
Major Works
Influences He was the first to introduce the concept
of tabula rasa, or "blank slate", which he wrote about in his book De Anima, or On the Soul.
Locke applied the same concept to his theory of the mind in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, using the phrase "white paper" to illustrate the state of man's mind at birth.
Aristotle (384 B.C.-322 B.C.)
In 1651, printed the Leviathan, in which defines government as a social contract established by the members of humanity, a compact to respect the rules of a central authority that would allow men and women (who, according to Hobbes, are naturally selfish and brutish) to live and function in society.
The theory had great influence with Locke, who further expounded it in his Two Treatises on Government.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Influences
The father of modern philosophy, expounded the theory that all knowledge should be proven as illustrated by his famous statement, "I think, therefore I am".
Locke reportedly declared that he would "rather learn Descartes than Aristotle“
Locke developed his ideas in a very different direction than Descartes; he rejected his predecessor's conviction in the existence of innate ideas.
Locke believed that man is not born with innate ideas, but rather develops his ideas by means of experience.
Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Influences
Newton developed the idea that the world is built up of basic particles, called corpuscles, which are bound together by the force of gravity.
Applying this view of the world to human thought, Locke postulated that our knowledge is made up of small ideas bound together to form complex ideas.
In the Epistle to the Reader at the beginning of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he refers to his time as "an age that produces such masters as...the incomparable Mr. Newton."
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
Influences
LegacyHe believed that reality is made up solely of thought and ideas, and that the only substance in matter is its perception. For him, objects cease to exist when they are no longer being directly observed.
Locke, on the other hand, was a realist. He believed that matter exists independently from its relationship to our minds; that an object continues to exist even when you can no longer see it.
Berkeley plays out the disagreement in his Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, in which he details an imaginary conversation on the existence of material substance in the world, supposedly between himself and Locke. Hylas is Greek for "matter", representing Locke's convictions. Philonous means "lover of mind", representing the idealism of Berkeley.
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
He frequently took occasion in his works to attack the opinions of Locke, such as in his treatise An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, in which he writes that, "...Addison, perhaps, will be read with pleasure, when Locke shall be entirely forgotten."
Yet despite his avowed disapproval of Locke, Hume was a product of his predecessor's teachings. Together with George Berkeley, Hume is listed among the famous empiricists who lived and worked during the Enlightenment.
The empiricists believed that all knowledge is obtained solely through man's experience, as opposed to man being innately endowed with his ideas from birth.
David Hume (1711-1776)
Legacy
He was influenced by Locke on many of his views on government, views that would change the Western world.
He wrote his Rights of Man, the most influential book of its time, in 1791. In it he describes his ultimate utopia, modelling a system very akin to the ideal that Locke describes in his Second Treatise of Government.
Impressed by Locke's social contract theory, Paine makes a point of insisting that government is legitimate only if it is established with the approval of the people.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Legacy
He was highly influenced by Locke's ideas of man's inalienable rights, as well as by Locke's insistence on a separation of church and state.
In a letter to John Trumbull, Jefferson referred to Locke as one of the "three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception".
The influence of Locke can be seen throughout the text of the Declaration. For instance, the demand for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" comes from a phrase originally coined by Locke, speaking of man's right to "life, health, liberty, or possessions".
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Legacy
“Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all characters, without any ideas. How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE.”-Essay Concerning Human Understanding : Hernnstein & Murray, 1994, p.311