John Locke

John Locke

• He embroiled in religious and political controversies and conflicts 

• Two treatises of civil government: denied the divine right of kings; ideas that inspired revolutions 

• Locke had a profound effect on two centuries of childhood education, particularly by encouraging hardening (toughen them up with privation)

locke was an

empiricist

Essay on human understanding 

Locke argued that the mind is a blank slate (tabula rosa) at birth 

• All knowledge is learned through experience; knowledge is only about our ideas 

• Sensation is one source of ideas; reflection is the only other source of ideas 

• Criticized the concept of innate ideas except for the existence of self and god

Locke attempted to describe?

the validity of human knowledge, the correspondence between ideas and the objects they represent 

Locke and primary/secondary qualities

• Locke defined primary qualities as those that reside in an object independently of perception 

• He defined secondary qualities as those that are a function of the interaction between the object and the observer's sensory system 

• The mind puts simple ideas together to form complex ideas 

Locke of retention of ideas

• Contemplation - keeping an idea brought into mind actively view 

• Memory- reviving in mind those ideas which have disappeared or “laid aside” ; memory is the storehouse of ideas 

Locke on operations of mind 

• There is no knowledge without discernment 

• Comparing them 

• Compounding- the mind puts together ideas created from sensation and reflection and puts them together to form more complex ideas 

• Abstracting- language allows particulars to be combined as universals having the same label 

Locke on morality, identity and consciousness 

He argued there is no morally universal principles to which everyone agrees 

• Faith and justice are not universal principles 

• Identity is continued participation of constantly fleeting particles of matter in succession in one body 

• Consciousness alone unites remote existence into one person, only consciousness can unite remote existences into the same person; without consciousness there is no person

Locke on government, state of nature, freedom, slavery 

First Treatise on government attacked the divine right of kings 

• Second Treatise on Government: in the state of nature, people have a right to the means for survival 

• Third, the Mixing of Labor and Private Property: people have a right to survival; they must be able to own things (like food or land) to sustain themselves.

• Fourth, the Social Contract and the Transition to Civil Government: The state of nature teaches people not to harm each other, but has no way to enforce this. Without judges or laws, disputes often lead to fighting and insecurity.

Locke belived in people having

discernment and rights as a human being

what century was Locke in?

17th century