Gilson, Etienne. A History of Philosophy - Modern Philosophy - Descartes to Kant pp. 191-219

Notes: John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding inspired Leibniz to write a 500 page essay parelleling the same topics. His Two Treatises of Civil Government inspired Whig Republicans in English and American politics for a century.

Empirical methods.

He was not a professional philosopher, he was trained as a physician, but worked as secretary.

The essay was brought about by the Glorious Revolution, the successful opposition by protestants against the Catholic party of King James II. In addition, the conception of God was rejected.

Locke writes in a way that does not presume to supply the answers to all of the problems of the universe and goes so far to state that human understanding has its limitations.

Locke argues that there are no universal innate ideas, but a readiness to accept these ideas when they present themselves.

An idea that is determinate is one that is present, definite, and primary. Determined applies to complex ideas. These ideas are constructed by thought processes within ourselves.

Locke tries to show that what we know comes from experience rather than innate knowledge. He calls experience “our observation, employed either about external sense objects, or about the internal operations of our minds, perceived and reflected on by ourselves.”

He says that sensation alone is not the source of experience, but we must also use reflection, that notice which the mind takes of its own operations, and the manner of them.“

Each simple idea has one uniform appearance, not distinguishable into parts. Atoms of consciousness. This is the basis for the construction of determined ideas.

He describes 4 simple types of ideas:

1. Discrete sense data.
2. Discrete reflections on the operation of the mind.
3. Qualities discovered through the cooperation of multiple senses.
4. Ideas derived from the cooperation of sense and reflection.

The Cartesians claim that color, sound, taste etc. are subjective. Locke suggests that the objects we sense impose effects in us, being simple ideas.

Complex ideas are formed by combining, comparing, and separating. The results are three categories substances, modes, and relations.

Much of the evidence that Locke puts forth doesn't hold up very well under scrutiny. In the formation of complex ideas, he doesn't use any sort of scientific method to assert how these ideas are formed. He generalizes away much in his descriptions.

He describes personal identity with being able to perceive oneself. He goes on to describe that the body and mind are separate, but sets up arguments for later philosophers such as Kant to challenge this position.

He talks about the ideas of an equilateral triangle and that the ideas that we conceive of them exist whether they exist in the real world or not.

He asserts that we cannot know facts about science inside us. We must observe them. They are experimental and we cannot find absolutes. It is a never ending quest.

He argued that the value of a thing came out of the labor that was put into it, before the Marxists.

Men motivated for the “common good”. Property assuse tho individual liberty and happiness.