Known as the father of the British Empiricism movement, John
Locke was born in 1632. He was lived in a small town called Wrington located in
Southwestern England. He attended Westminster School in London. He then
attended Oxford from 1652 until 1677. While he did not particularly enjoy the
philosophies of those before him that were taught in school, he did very well.
He knew and became close with a few important people who
became influencal in his life. He was a tutor for the son of Anthony Ashley
Cooper who became an Earl. He was close with Thomas Sydenham, who was the most
famous physician of the day. Locke was able to hold different political roles.
This is the point in his life when he started to write his most famous work, Essay
Concerning Human Understanding.
Regarding his famous essay, Locke said that we have to know
who we are and things about ourselves before we can look at the world. We
should figure out what aspects we relate to and know about, and which we barely
break the surface in. His essay consists of four different books. All of these
come together to examine the human mind. In the first book, Locke shuts down
the idea that some knowledge is innate. He states that the mind is a blank
slate. The second book speaks that experience is what fills our slate with
knowledge. He introduces a system to evaluate ones ideas and their quality.
Book three is known as the language book. He says that the misuse of language
is a huge obstacle in today’s society. Book four is totally based on the
explanation of knowledge and belief. He says, “Knowledge then seems to me to be
nothing but the perception of the connexion and agreement, or disagreement and
repugnancy of any of our ideas. Where this perception is, there is knowledge,
and where it is not, there, though we may fancy, guess, or believe, yet we
always come short of knowledge.”
Sorry for the language in the below video. This basically explains Locke enough
that you probably could have just watched it ant not read anything I typed.
We as Americans owe Locke a great big thank you. As the video said, we basically ripped off all of his ideas in the Declaration of Independence.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/locke/#H1
"you probably could have just watched it ant not read anything I typed" -but then, how would we know what YOU knew? How would YOU? And how would you ever improve your "typing" skills?
ReplyDeleteIf your research turns up any interesting details about Locke's time at Oxford, please pass them along. My future Study Abroad course in England will include a trip to his old College.
Also: do you have any thoughts about the significance of "Lost's" John Locke?