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 assures the individual liberty and happiness. In the state of nature, all men are equal. He's not saying that all men were the same, just that they were each the master of his own destiny. Freedom is a natural in-born right.

He argues for a societal social contract in which men voluntarily give up the freedom to be judge and executioner as he sees fit. He does this in order to pursue preservation and happiness. The government has power only to allow for people to pursue this preservation and property. Stepping outside this boundary lends itself to revolution by the people.

Kurtz, American Thought Before 1900, pp143-164

Thomas Jefferson followed Lockes reasoning in that people had natural rights. Primary among these is the right to self-govern. Among these rights are the rights of thinking, speaking, forming opinions. None of these required external assistance. The second kind of rights are the right to personal protection, possessing property. These rights, he argues, can be relinquished by a group of people to the betterment of the entire group. As for Locke's idea of rebellion being just if a government was unjust, Jefferson clearly thought that it too was justified.

Jefferson believed that there was a natural aristocracy and one that was artificial. The one that was natural, was based on the idea that those with virtue and wisdom, and talent would be the ones that were elected to rule. The artificial aristocracy being one based on wealth and birth, he deemed, was detrimental to the well-being of a republic.

He thought that majority rule was acceptable as long as the society remained chiefly agricultural. He felt that industrialization and large cities were corrupt.

In Jefferson's ideal society, education was an essential component. He thought that it was important that people understand wisdom and virtue so that they could rule themselves appropriately. He thought that all governments were corrupt in some way and that only through due diligence that these weaknesses could be discovered and dealt with. He thought that this was significant enough to amend the Constitution to provide for public education because all people should have their effect on their government.

He thought that any nation should not deny another to rule itself as it sees fit for its own people.

He thought that the freedom of the press was essential for critical analysis of government.

He hoped that people having their own freedom would want to share in that freedom and would see slavery for what it was. He held slaves, though treated them as freemen. This thinking was progressive for its time.

Jefferson's famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association set forth the doctrine of “separation of church and state” when he clarified that no legislature should establish a religion and should not prohibit the free excercise of a religion.

Though he was attacked often as being an aetheist, he infact often declared his belief in a Creator. He argued for reason in interpretation of the Bible in matters that contradicted the laws of nature and one should think critically of what one reads in material in the Bible just as one would of any other writer. “Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven”, he reasons in his argument to read the Bible (and other histories of Christ) and make your own judgments of the truth.

Furthermore, he describes the many years of Christian thought to be using Plato, which he thought poorly of as corrupting the teachings of Christ. He sites the moral doctrines of Jesus as being more perfect than even the greatest of philosophers, though he does liken Jesus to Socrates and Epictetus in that none of them actually wrote anything down.

He argues that if morality comes merely from the love of God, then where do the moralities of an atheist come from?