Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

English philosopher. Educated at Westminster School, Locke became an undergraduate and subsequently a don at Christ Church, Oxford. He qualified as a medical doctor as well as a philosopher. He became secretary to Lord Ashley, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. As a supporter of William of Orange, he was forced into exile in Holland, returning at the accession of William and Mary in 1688. His most important works are the Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), Two Treatises of Government (1690) and Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693).Locke's philosophy moves in the tradition of Cartesian rationalism and Newtonian science, although he has some significant differences with R. Descartes. He understands, for example, the word ‘idea’ to be sensory, rather than intellectual like Descartes. Human minds, for Locke, have no ‘innate ideas’ but all ideas are formed by sensation or by rational reflection. He also introduced the philosophical distinction between primary qualities (those which an object has in itself) and secondary qualities (those which involve interaction with another). Locke's political philosophy is extremely influential: in particular, his theory of property, by which labour gives land value, and the labourer ownership rights over the land. He advocated religious and political tolerance, since the limitations of human understanding ... log in or subscribe to read full text