Group members: Dumrauf, Paula.

Rodriguez, Gabriela

Bullet points ideas 5

 Philosophical thoughts: Empirism
He was the founder of the school of thought known as British Empirism. His empiricist
theory about human mind an acquisition of knowledge asserts that ideas are acquired
through the experience of the world.

 Political Theory: Liberalism

He claimed that men are by nature free and equal and have the right to life, liberty and
property that have a foundation independent of the laws of any society. He also claimed
that legitimate political government is the result of a social contract in which people
transfers some of their rights in order to ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of
their natural rights

 Rejection to the Cartesian concept of innate ideas

He attempts to inquire the origin and extent of the human knowledge and in doing so he
rejects the theory of innate ideas. His arguments are:
- there is not universal asset to valid innate ideas.
- what are considered innate maxims are derived from the senses and the influence of
society.
- Human mind construct ideas by the use of reason.
- the idea that innate principles are self-evident and would be assented to upon
realization or understanding.

 Psychological and pedagogical theory: tabula rasa

He argued that people acquire knowledge from the information about the objects in the
world that our senses bring, that is how people begin with simple ideas and then
combine them into more complex ones. He also sets out that the human mind at birth is
a complete, but receptive, “tabula rasa” upon which experience imprints knowledge. As
regards educational theory in his 1693 book Some Thoughts concerning Education
presents the basic argument that "a child's mind must be educated before he is
instructed, that the true purpose of education is the cultivation of the intellect rather than
an accumulation of facts." According to Locke, the ideal education would instill a strong
moral sense. In particular, a child should be taught virtue, wisdom, breeding, and
learning.

 Religion vs. State: freedom to choose

He was a social contract theorist, and his view of equality was not limited to the political
realm; he also promoted religious toleration, with atheism being the one notable
exception. He supported general toleration of alternative religious beliefs but
encouraged the ex-communication of non-believers. He advocates a separation
between Church and State; he says: “I esteem it above all things necessary to
distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion and to settle the
just bounds that lie between the one and the other” (Locke, Toleration, 2).
 Bullet points biography/ historical context 10
 Born in Wrington (near Bristol) in 1632, died in 1704.
His family was sympathetic to Puritanism but remained within the Church of England.
Raised in Pensford, near Bristol, Locke was 10 years old at the start of the English Civil
Wars between the monarchy of Charles I and parliamentary forces under the eventual
leadership of Oliver Cromwell.

 Industrial, political and ideological revolutions

Enlightment or “The Age of Reason”: considered the beginning of modernity and a
period in which all aspects of traditional life (religion, political organization, social
structure, science,
human relations, human nature, history, economics and the very grounds of human
understanding) were subjected to intense scrutiny and investigation.

 Tutor in Oxford in favour of Anglicanism

At first in 1660, Locke would write and talk in favour of the Anglican clergy and reinforce
the oppression of those in disagreement.
Influenced by John Owen´s thoughts: Owen was a supporter of a political tolerance for
all the religions branches

 Met Anthony Ashley Cooper, Count of Shaftesbury, (Whigs Party)

Society revolves around the topic of religious tolerance. Since Locke met Cooper, he
would firmly affirm that the magistrates did not have the authority to interfere with
individual decisions of people who choose their own path towards eternal salvation.

 Wrote “Two treaties of Government” and “The Essay concerning Human Understanding”
(both 1690)
He developed the liberal ideas of the “Two Treatises of Government” as he was working
for the first earl of Shaftesbury, a chief architect of the Glorious Revolution and spelled
out a contractual theory of monarchy in which the power of the king was limited
significantly by that of Parliament. In “The Essay concerning Human Understanding” he
put forth the idea that human knowledge is based on two factors: experience and the
capacity for reflection.

 Education to form “gentlemen”: The concept of “tabula rasa” as a “white paper that can
be mouldable” led to explain how men’s manners and abilities exists because of
education. For Locke, the purpose of education was to form “gentlemen”.

 “Some Thoughts Concerning Education” (1693)

His educational theory also begins with the idea that the mind is a white sheet of paper
on which experience will be written. Consequently, education becomes a process by
which the entire character and mind of a child are shaped.
 “Juvenal Mens sana in corpore sano”
As he was a physician, he advised parents to carefully nurture their children's physical
"habits" before pursuing their academic education and to convinced parents about that
he quoted Juvenal´s Satire phrase “Mens sana in corpore sana”. He also offered
specific advice on topics ranging from bed linens to diet to sleeping regimens.

 Exiled in 1689, the year in which the England Revolution took place. Since then, Locke
was considered a representative of the new Liberal Regime

Sources

 Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, Revised edition. (Peter Hanns Reill and Ellen Judy
Wilson, 2004)
 http://www.biography.com/people/john-locke-9384544
 https://es.scribd.com/doc/49450104/Philosophy-of-Mind-Locke-s-Arguments-Against-
Innate-Ideas-and-Knowledge
 http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/john_locke_tabula_rasa.html
 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/75/john-locke-on-equality-toleration-and-the-
atheist-exception
 https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Locke#toc280602
 https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Some%20Thoughts%20Concerning%20Education&item_
type=topic