John Locke

• Considered one of the first great modern philosophers

• Combined rationalism of Rene DesCartes and empiricism and scientific method
of Francis Bacon
• Made first modern theory of human nature
• Early education at home
• Then went to Westminster near Westminster abbey – studied latin, greek, Arabic,
and Hebrew so he could read classic books written in those languages
• Became a king’s scholar. This meant he was eligible for a scholarship to oxford
university or Cambridge university.
• In may 1652 at age 20 he was elected to go to chirst church college, at oxford. On
scholarship.
• Graduated with bachelor of arts and then continued for three years to get master
of arts
• Even at a young age he believed uncritical adherence to tradition and irrational
emotion were two primary causes of human error.
• He undertook advanced academic studies to search for rational and empirical
method of finding truth.
• All of family died by 1663.
• 1661 elected lecturer in greek by Christ church, then elected lecturer in rhetoric.
• Thought of becoming clergyman to advance career, however these were
controlled by Anglican church, he disliked theology and keen interest in science
kept him from doing that
• When King Charles II visited oxford he appointed Locke to go to Brandenburg.
While there Locke was deeply impressed by religious tolerance there. Shaped
much of Locke’s view on religion.
• Concluded all Christian religions EXCEPT Catholicism were to be tolerated. This
due to unswerving allegiance to pope and non-believers threat to social peace.
Very liberal.
• Summer of 1666 met Anthony Ashley Cooper. Later became Earl of Shaftesbury,
invited Locke to London home to be physician. Even though Locke had never had
medical training.
o Through Cooper’s many political and intellectual connections Locke able
to develop skills as a philosopher as well as gain appointment to many
public office positions.
• After developing lung problems from London smog Locke went to France in 1671
for extended stay.
o There he met much of French Royal Society.
• 1682 - Discovered that Cooper planned to overthrow Charles II in order to
prevent James, his brother, from taking over. It became dangerous to know
Cooper.
o Locke fled England and went to Netherlands. While there he visited many
of his famous friends. Leeuwenhoek- inventor of microscope. Prince
 William or Orange and wife Mary who would become next monarchs of
England.
• In Utrecht winter of 1684-1685 began working on his book An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding.
o This book addressed 3 main questions: How do we gain Knowledge? How
reliable is this knowledge? What is the scope of what can be know by
human knowledge?
o While writing the book used empirical method.
 Empiricism argues that humans were born with empty minds and
the only link the mind had with external world was with senses.
o Locke established clear distinction between knowledge reached through
reason, meant could be easily verified, and knowledge reached through
faith/opinion. He thought the latter was mere mental fantasy.
• When William and Mary took the throne Locke went back to England on Mary’s
ship.
• William offered Locke many diplomatic positions but he declined them all,
wanting to stay in England, instead took part-time position as commissioner of
appeals.
• Locke, without job at Oxford, wrote Two Treatises of Government
o In this book Locke maintained the social contract theory of government.
o For Locke the only reason for government to exist was to protect and
preserve rights. Including life, liberty, and property.
o If this contract is violated it should be destroyed and rewritten into a better
form.
 This is Locke’s earliest defenses of the concept of civil
disobedience.
• Later in his life Locke published a few little known works. In 1695 his asthma
became so bad during London winters that he moved in with close friend Lady
Masham. Spent remainder of his life there.
• Died 1704
Gale
• Locke seems to be singularly disconnected thinker.
• Earliest work was on natural law.
• Brang him to 2 big things: political theory and human understanding
• Saw natural law as blinding moral and social force.
• Politics
• Second treatise had ideas of parliamentarian ideals of mixed government and
separation of powers established in England by political settlement.
• Goal was to describe process of human understanding, inquire probable
knowledge, and determine nature of ideas.
• Ideas have two sources
o Sensation:
o Reflection upon ideas produced by sensation
  Simple ideas are result of sensation and reflection, are
compounded of simple parts, found by byanalysis.
• Locke attributed reality to external world, relied upon intuition to explain relation
of an idea and symbol it refers to in external world.
• Knowledge of intuition is ‘certain’, meaning it was derived from demonstration.
• Locke’s being proof of God is fusion of demonstration with intuition.
• So “the night man” and “the day man,” the drunken man and the sober man, the
madman and the sane man may coexist in the same person, even though their
control over consciousness may be intermittent or interrupted.
• Say people have different “roles” they play. Different situations bring out that.
• Memory plays a large part in this ‘role’ making
• the supremacy of experience over rational powers: a man taught to dance in a
room containing a trunk could never dance in the absence of a similar trunk; a
man nearly axed in a doorway by a berserk village idiot could never go through a
door without glancing behind him

•
The philosopher Locke tried to explain how people learn. He said that
everyone's mind is blank at birth. Through experience, people gain
knowledge. Even our understanding of good and evil comes from our
experience of pleasure and pain. Locke's thinking led to the notion that
people are born equal. His work inspired the Enlightenment thinkers in
their criticism of church and state.

"IT IS ONE THING TO SHOW A MAN THAT HE IS IN ERROR, AND ANOTHER TO PUT HIM IN
POSSESSION OF TRUTH."
—JOHN LOCKE