John Locke
(1632 – 1704)
English philosopher and physician, graduated Oxford. One of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment and one of the first empiricists of the British tradition.
In his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Locke proposed important ideas on theory of knowledge and the self, which grounded the school of British Empiricism.
Empiricism is the idea that at birth, the mind is a blank state (tabula rasa) and knowledge is constructed through experience, either through sense perception or reflection (cf. Rationalism, Descartes and innate ideas).
Locke’s theory of the mind is often thought to be one the origin of the modern conception of identity and the self, as he was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness.
According to Locke, the buildings blocks of knowledge are composed of 1) simple & complex ideas and 2) primary and secondary qualities:
Simple ideas: originate purely in the senses. They are simple in the sense that they are directly experienced by the senses and cannot be further broken down into simpler concepts (for example, colours can only be known through experience, and you cannot explain what ‘blue’ is to someone who had never seen the colour, you can only point at something that is blue)
Complex ideas: are combinations of simple ideas (for example, ‘apple’ is a combination of the simple ideas of ‘red’, ‘round’, ‘sweet’, ‘juicy’, etc.), but also comparisons and relations (for example, something is lighter of faster than something else, or something is above, or to the right/left of something)
Primary qualities: are characteristics of objects that are independent of the observer (for example, solidity, size, shape, location)
Secondary qualities: are properties of objects that produce sensations and feelings in the observer (for example, colour, taste, sound, smell)
Further, Locke made important contributions to political philosophy and social contract theory. In his Two Treatises of Government (1690), Locke defines a moral state of nature, where all humans are given certain God-given natural rights, such as the right to life, health, liberty and possessions (cf. Hobbes’s state of nature).
– He also derives the right to property from the state of nature, saying that it is a natural right that comes from labour. So according to Locke, we have the right to claim whatever part of nature we have mixed our labour with (if I cut down a tree and make a chair, that chair is rightfully mine).
– Following from this, the political state is a social contract between an individual and the state, where the individuals agree to be ruled by an overarching power – like the government or the state – as long as their natural rights are protected.
The state or government is judged by how well it protects the individual rights of its citizens: a good state protects and maximises those rights, while a bad or an evil state does not, or outright assaults their natural rights. The social contract states that if the state does not respect those rights, it is an illegitimate one and can, or should be overthrown.
Locke’s ideas had a profound influence on politics and the way that a representative government should, by law, protect the basic rights and freedoms of its people. They were used by the Founding Father of the American revolution, and incorporated into the United States Declaration of Independence.