Facts about Locke
Shaftesbury, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence on Locke's political ideas.
Locke’s refutation is humorous and entertaining, but in the process he makes important statements on marriage and family life.
Locke fled to the Netherlands in 1683, under strong suspicion of involvement in the Rye House Plot (though there is little evidence to suggest that he was directly involved in the scheme).
In 1704, Leibniz wrote a rationalist response to Locke's work in the form of a chapter-by-chapter rebuttal, the Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain ("New Essays on Human Understanding").
John Locke was born in Wrington, Somerset, about ten miles from Bristol, England, in 1632.
Locke’s ideas on liberty and the social contract influenced the written works of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other Founding Fathers of the United States.
Appraisals of Locke have therefore been tied to appraisals of the United States and of liberalism in general.
Compared to the French philosophes, however, Locke was remarkably moderate, and there was no anti-religious element in his thought.
Locke contended that innate principles would rely upon innate ideas, which do not exist.
Locke originally published the Letter anonymously, in Latin, in Amsterdam, though it was almost immediately translated into English.
One of Locke's fundamental arguments against innate ideas is the very fact that there are no truths to which all people attest.
Locke played a key role in the emergence of Britain's "gentlemanly religion" that stressed reason over heart and looked scornfully at what it referred to as "religious enthusiasm."
Locke also made contributions in the fields of theology, education, and economics.
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."
Locke is best known for two works, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government.
Locke’s thought system as a whole is not without inconsistencies.
The Second Treatise, or True End of Civil Government, is one of Locke’s two most influential works.
Locke's epistemology and philosophy of mind also had a great deal of significant influence well into the Enlightenment period and beyond.
Locke followed the lead of Descartes in moving away from the remnants of medieval scholasticism, but he rejected Descartes’ rationalism in favor of the empirical method.
Most importantly perhaps, Locke's notions of a "government with the consent of the governed" and people's natural rights—life, liberty, health and property—had an enormous influence on the development of political philosophy.
Upon his return from exile in London, the latter popularized Locke’s ideas on freedom and independence of mind mixed with moderate skepticism in matters of theoretical inquiry.
Locke’s position was that a reasonable Christian faith and morality could be derived naturally from Scripture based on the simple principles found in it.
Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy were in their infancy during Locke's time.
Locke posits a state of nature as the proper starting point for examining politics, which is consistent with his view that our origin in a common ancestor, Adam, is of little significance.
Through the law of nature, which Locke describes as "reason," we are able to understand why we must respect the natural rights of others (including the right to property for which one has labored).
Locke’s position involves skepticism about our capacity to recognize the ultimate truth of any doctrine.
Following Shaftesbury's fall from favor in 1675, Locke spent some time traveling across France.
Just as it was critical of Cartesian rationalism, Locke's empiricist viewpoint was in turn sharply criticized by rationalists, namely in the person of Gottfried Leibniz.
Cooper was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to become part of his retinue.
In chapter 27 of Book II, Locke discusses personal identity, and the idea of a person.
Locke proposed a labor theory of property that built on the idea of natural law (see Thomas Aquinas).
Locke was an important political thinker, whose Second Treatise on Government is credited with influencing Thomas Jefferson's drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
By adopting a latitudinarian theological stance, Locke believed, the national church could serve as an instrument for social harmony.
At the same time, Locke's work provided crucial groundwork for the work of future empiricists like David Hume.
Shaftesbury survived and prospered, crediting Locke with saving his life.
The close of Book II suggests that Locke discovered a close relationship between words and ideas that prompted him to include a book on language before moving on to discuss knowledge.
Locke did not return home until after the Glorious Revolution.
What distinguishes Locke from Kant is the absence of the critical element—a factor meant to give a clear-cut criterion of legitimate knowledge based on the functions of our consciousness.
Locke had been looking for a career and in 1667 moved into Shaftesbury's home at Exeter House in London, ostensibly as the household physician.
Locke is an empiricist, in the sense that his starting point lies in the perception of sense objects, rather than in the function of our mind.
Religious sects that refuse to accept Locke's doctrine of toleration of necessity seek a change in the government, and so may be suppressed as revolutionary.
The way Locke states his purpose in the “Epistle” preceding the essay is strongly reminiscent of Kant’s own objective, or rather it is an anticipation of Kant’s undertaking in the first Critique.
Locke's main thesis is that the mind of a newborn is a blank slate and that all ideas are developed from experience.
Religious toleration within Great Britain was a subject of great interest for Locke; he wrote several subsequent essays in its defense prior to his death.
John Locke (August 29, 1632 – October 28, 1704) was a seventeenth-century English philosopher and social activist concerned primarily with governance, political theory, epistemology,and religious tolerance.
The Essay was commenced in 1671, and as Locke himself described, was written in fits and starts over the next 18 years.
Locke's upbringing among non-conformist Protestants made him sensitive to differing theological viewpoints.
Locke allowed that some ideas are in the mind from an early age, but argued that such ideas are furnished by the senses starting at birth: for instance, differences between colors or tastes.
Locke is to be commended for his efforts to maintain objectivity in his philosophical and political inquiries and for his willingness to speak out against the political injustices of his days.
Locke’s epistemology, insisting on the role of experience, stands in direct relationship to his stand against abusive authority in questions of religious freedom and political governance.
Sydenham had a major impact on Locke's natural philosophical thinking - an impact that resonated deeply in Locke's writing of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
Here, the close relationship between Locke’s epistemology and his moral and social views becomes evident.
Locke's medical knowledge was soon put to the test, since Shaftesbury's liver infection became life threatening.
The bulk of Locke's publishing took place after his arrival back in England—the Essay, the Two Treatises and the Letter on Toleration all appeared in quick succession upon his return from exile.
The influences of Locke's Puritan upbringing and his Whig political affiliation expressed themselves in his published writings.
Locke became involved in politics when Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor in 1672.
Locke’s refutation is humorous and entertaining, but in the process he makes important statements on marriage and family life.
Locke coordinated the advice of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading Shaftesbury to undergo an operation (then life-threatening itself) to remove the cyst.
Locke did not return home until after the Glorious Revolution.
Scholars believe that Karl Marx later adapted Locke's theory on property in his philosophies.
John Locke (1632—1704) John Locke was among the most famous philosophers and political theorists of the 17th century. He is often regarded as the founder of a school of thought known as British Empiricism, and he made foundational contributions to modern theories of limited, liberal government.
Locke's political theory was founded on social contract theory. Unlike Thomas Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature is characterised by reason and tolerance. Like Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature allowed people to be selfish.
John Locke (1632–1704) is among the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch.Nov 9, 2005
To Hobbes, the government can do anything it wants. The people give up their rights to an absolute ruler. The ruler has to be absolute if society is to survive. The major difference, then, is that Locke envisions a very limited government while Hobbes believes in the need for absolute monarchy.