History of John Locke

1. John
Locke’s
 Major Works
 Influences
 Legacy
Ms. Nanelyn T. Bontoyan
Reporter
Dr. Shirley A. Padua
Professor

2. Major Works
Essay 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.

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.)

6.  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

7.  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

8.  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

9. Legacy
He 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)

10.  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

11.  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

12.  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

13. “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