An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding was written by John Locke in 1689. 

John Locke was born in 1632.He studied classical Greek and Latin, Mathematics in the Westminster School in London. He was friends' with Robert Boyle, who studied medicine. He was a fellow of the Royal Society. John Locke was befriended with Thomas Herbert the future Earl of Pembroke who was an amateur philosopher and patron of intellectual activity. This essay is dedicated to Thomas Herbert. Locke wrote Two treatises of the Government - a political philosophy (1689) that criticized the concept of divine right of kings.

This essay consists of two letters. 

The first letter is addressed to Thomas Herbert and dedicated to him. 

The second letter is for the readers.

A defense of the book and arguments through various perspectives. There is an intellectual diversion. He hopes to promote clear thinking and clear communication which is the progress of knowledge. 

There are four books of the argumentative prose. In the first book, neither the principles nor the ideas are innate. The second book is of ideas. The third book is of words. The fourth book is of knowledge and probability. 

The first book has four chapters. The introduction is of the understanding that distinguishes man from being. The understanding needs a special skill - hard work. 

There are four purposes. The first purpose is to enquire the origin, certainty, and extent of human knowledge. The second purpose is to ascertain belief, opinion and assent. The third purpose focuses on the ability of the mind to think and not the biological formulas. The fourth purpose is of the individual opinions are different and contradictory (even when it is the same idea - with confidence). 

We should suspect about what the truth is. The opinion of knowledge and how we perform are the same. What are the standards? The origin of the ideas or the notion. The self evident knowledge is behind an understanding. The nature of faith or opinion are ideas which has to be willingly accepted as the truth. This study will help in understanding the human knowledge. If he succeeds, help a busy mind in dealing cautiously - in dealing with things that are beyond the comprehension of man. We stop when it is too difficult and to accept things when it is beyond our capability. God gave man an understanding than any other creature. Example: physical exercise, question?

What is an idea? it is "an object of the understanding when man thinks". this was against the philosophy of Plato and Descartes who believed in innate knowledge. The mind is initially a blank state, ideas imprinted on it through experience against the claim that God is an innate idea. He counters/ God is not a universally accepted idea and even his existence is not innate human knowledge. 

In the second book, he explains knowledge which is built from ideas. The ideas are 'objects of thinking' which is experience. There are two types of ideas; Simple ideas are directly and immediately perceived. The complex ideas are those that are built from simple ideas created through combination, compassion and abstraction. Ideas arise by 2 means - sensation and reflection. Sensations are found in the sensory experiences of the external world. Examples: hot, cold, bitter, sweet etc. Reflection is the minds awareness of its own operation an gives rise to more abstract ideas like time, space, numbers etc. These are built up from simple ideas. A child will feel nauseated if he/she eats too much honey. It is also the same feeling with adults (reflecting through experiences). 

In the third book, there is a relationship between language and experience. Words are used to communicate ideas. one has to be careful in using words. when words are inaccurately communicated, religion and philosophical debates will turn out to be an unclear idea). This is a serious hindrance to the advancement of knowledge. Locke doesn't accept that the ideas reflect the true essences of things. Plato recognizes a member of the species based on the essence. Example: Tree - in its essence. The essence do not  exist/ but define based on categories, words reflect people to group things on similar trait. 

The fourth book is of the nature of knowledge (investigates). There is an awareness of the relationships among ideas. The human knowledge is limited/ many knowledge is only belief. Knowledge implies both total certainty and the ability to establish something beyond a doubt. Reason is the basic standard for seeking truth. All human understanding: natural philosophy, ethics(study of how it is best to act) and logic (study of words) is based on these three sciences. A study to gain knowledge. 

This essay is the keystone of the British enlightenment / Empiricism - knowledge of experience. The view of human intellectual development is limited - concepts of memory, personal identity and association of ideas - Interplay among philosophy, religion, and politics in the 17th century British/ influenced - David Home and George Beskely.   This essay was of the principal sources of empiricism in modern philosophy. 


Prepared by

Dr. Susan Mathew

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight

Image
  I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight Agha Shahid Ali The Poet Agha Shahid Ali was born in 1949: just one year or more after Independence, and also after partition. His birth was in Delhi, but he was raised up in Kashmir. Life in Kashmir was difficult in those days. The problems of partition, with India and Pakistan holding claim to the territories there, made the place a constant field of fights and tensions. The poet moved over to the USA in 1976. This poem forms part of a collection “The Country without a Post Office”. which came out in 1997. Agha Shahid Ali is a representative of diaspora. He has childhood memories of Kashmir. He spent his youthhood partly in Delhi, where he had his college education. Then he moved over to the United States of America, where he became a teacher and emerged as a noted poet. In most of his poems, Kashmir and its problems form the theme. The Poem “I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight”, by Agha Shahid Ali, is a diasporic poem, where the poet h
Read more

Romeo and Juliet (Savouring the Classics)

Image
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) The Writer Shakespeare needs little introduction! A writer of plays - tragedies, comedies, and histories, and also the composer of poems and sonnets. He lived in Elizabethan England, in the sixteenth century. But he belongs not to any particular place or time. As his friend and contemporary writer Ben Jonson puts it: “He was not of an age, but for all time!” A Shakespearean drama, according to the Elizabethan convention, is divided into five Acts. Each Act may have a number of scenes. The Elizabethan stage had no curtains in the front. Hence, the writers arranged each section in a way all characters left the stage at the end of a scene. Even if there is a dead body, there will be someone to carry it away. Because there is no back curtain depicting any scenery or background, the plays will have lots of descriptions explaining what all can be seen. The Play “Romeo and Juliet” is one of the early plays from Shakespeare. The plot is develo
Read more

I'm Explaining A Few Things - Pablo Neruda

Image
  I'm Explaining a Few Things The Poem: English Translation You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs? and the poppy-petalled metaphysics? and the rain repeatedly spattering its words and drilling them full of apertures and birds?   I'll tell you all the news.   I lived in a suburb, a suburb of Madrid, with bells, and clocks, and trees.   From there you could look out over Castille's dry face: a leather ocean.            My house was called the house of flowers, because in every cranny geraniums burst: it was a good-looking house with its dogs and children.              Remember, Raul? Eh, Rafel?        Federico, do you remember from under the ground my balconies on which the light of June drowned flowers in your mouth?           Brother, my brother! Everything loud with big voices, the salt of merchandises, pile-ups of palpitating bread, the stalls of my suburb of Arguelles with its statue like a drained inkwell in a swirl of hake: oil
Read more