The Locke Reader: Selections from the Works of John Locke with a General Introduction and Commentary

Front Cover
CUP Archive, Mar 1, 1977 - Philosophy - 350 pages
John Yolton seeks to allow readers of Locke to have accessible in one volume sections from a wide range of Locke's books, structured so that some of the interconnections of his thought can be seen and traced. Although Locke did not write from a system of philosophy, he did have in mind an overall division of human knowledge. The readings begin with Locke's essay on Hermeneutics and the portions of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding on how to read a text. The reset of the selections are organized around Locke's division of human knowledge into natural science, ethics, and the theory of signs. Yolton's introduction and commentary explicate Locke's doctrines and provide the reader with the general background knowledge of other seventeenth-century writers and their works necessary to an understanding of Locke and his time.

From inside the book

Contents

Introduction
1
Essay 3 9 3
3
Essay 4 21 15 28
4
The Science of Nature
31
Deductive Knowledge and Real Essence
54
Essay 4 6 916
78
Observational Knowledge of Nature
85
Essay 3 11 1921
86
Essay 3 11 56
152
Essay 4 8 7 13
153
c Defects of Language and Their Remedies
154
Essay 3 10 16 9 12 235
156
Essay 3 11 16 1112
160
Conduct section 29
163
Moral Words
164
Essay 3 10 33
165

Essay 3 11 25
87
Essay 4 12 9
89
Essay 4 12 12
90
Essay 4 12 2
91
Hypotheses in Science
92
Conduct section 13
93
Conduct section 25
94
Conduct sections 434
95
Conduct sections 345
96
Essay 4 16 12 98
98
Letter to Molyneux Works IX pp 4635
100
Essay 2 8 12 723
102
The Doctrine of Signs
109
Examination sections 35 1718 42
111
Examination section 20
116
Essay 1 3 14 1011 120
120
Essay 1 4
123
b Genetic Account of Ideas in Children
126
Essay 2 1 6 212 127
127
Essay 2 9 5 7
128
c Experience as the Source 129
129
Essay 1 4 25
130
d Physiology
132
Essay 2 8 4 136
136
Essay 2 10 5
137
e Specific Ideas 138
138
Essay 2 4 13
140
Essay 2 16 12
142
Essay 2 21 1
143
Letter to the Bishop of Worcester Works IV p 11
144
Word Signs
145
Essay 3 3 6 11
148
Essay 4 5 4
149
Essay 4 6 1
150
Essay 3 10 26
151
Conduct section 9
167
The Science of Action
169
Character Traits and Natural Tendencies
170
Education sections 66 1012
171
Conduct sections 2 4
173
Action and the Person
176
Essay 3 5 1011
177
Essay 3 9 7
178
Essay 2 27 36
180
Essay 2 27 9 1617 26
182
Essay 2 27 15
185
Virtue and Law
190
Essay 2 28 416
195
Essay 2 21 60
201
vii
202
Reasonableness Works VII pp 11123
206
Reasonableness Works VII pp 13844
216
Education as Training for Virtue
220
Education sections 45 70 94 99100 135 159
221
Two Treatises II sections 5861 639
231
Social Groups and the Origin of Civil Society
237
Two Treatises II sections 7789
240
Toleration Works VI pp 945
245
Two Treatises II sections 115
276
Two Treatises II sections 1004
283
Two Treatises II sections 12431
285
Two Treatises II sections 2539
288
Political Obligation and Consent
296
Two Treatises II sections 15964
304
Two Treatises II sections 2413
317
Conclusion
319
Bibliography
330
Index
332
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1977)

John Locke's works of political and social philosophy, written in the 17th century, have strongly influenced intellectuals ever since - including the founders of the United States of America. Born in 1632 in Wrington, England, Locke studied at Christ Church, Oxford, where he earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in the late 1650's. He also studied medicine and earned a medical license. His studies led to an interest in contemporary philosophers influenced by science, such as Rene Descartes. Locke read widely among them while teaching at Christ Church over the next few years. In 1667, Locke became personal physician and adviser to Anthony Ashley Cooper, who later was appointed Earl of Shaftesbury. Through Shaftesbury's patronage, Locke earned some government posts and entered London's intellectual circles, all the while writing philosophy. He was one of the best-known European thinkers of his time when he died in 1704. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Locke established the philosophy of empiricism, which holds that the mind at birth is a blank tablet. Experience, Locke believed, would engrave itself upon the tablet as one grew. He felt humans should create theories according to experience and test them with experiments. This philosophy helped establish the scientific method. Locke codified the principals of liberalism in "Two Treatises of Government" (1690). He emphasized that the state must preserve its citizens' natural rights to life, liberty and property. When the state does not, Locke argued, citizens are justified in rebelling. His view of liberalism comprised limited government, featuring elected representation and legislative checks and balances. While a Christian, Locke believed in absolute separation of church and state, and he urged toleration of those whose religious views differed from the majorities.

Bibliographic information