An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke

Notes and Introduction by Mark G. Spencer, Brock University, Ontario   John Locke (1632-1704) was perhaps the most influential English writer of his time. His Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690) and Two Treatises of Government (1690) weighed heavily on the history of ideas in the eighteenth century, and Locke’s works are often ? rightly ? presented as foundations of the Age of Enlightenment. Both the Essay and the Second Treatise (by far the more influential of the Two Treatises) were widely read by Locke’s contemporaries and near contemporaries. His eighteenth-century readers included philosophers, historians and political theorists, but also community and political leaders, engaged laypersons, and others eager to participate in the expanding print culture of the era. His epistemological message that the mind at birth was a blank slate, waiting to be filled, complemented his political message that human beings were free and equal and had the right to create and direct the governments under which they lived. Today, Locke continues to be an accessible author. He provides food for thought to university professors and their students, but has no less to offer the general reader who is eager to enjoy the classics of world literature.

John Locke (1632-1704) was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and held various academic posts at that university, lecturing on Greek and rhetoric. However, his interests lay in medicine and the new experimental sciences and in 1667 he became personal physician to the Earl of Shaftesbury. Under the influence of Shaftesbury, Locke developed his ideas on politics, property, trade, monarchy and the mind. Shaftesbury became a bitter opponent of Charles II and was involved in the plot of 1683. This forced Locke to flee in exile to Holland, but he returned after 1688 and began to publish his most famous works. He wrote also on ethology, education, and in defense of religious tolerance, while founding the analytic philosophy of the mind.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781840227321
ISBN 10	184022732X
Title	An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Author	John Locke
Series	Classics Of World Literature
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Year published	2014-06-15
Number of pages	880
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable