John Locke
English philosopher who argued that ideas come from experience
English philosopher whose Essay Concerning Human Understanding argued that the mind starts without innate ideas and that knowledge is built from sensation and reflection.
Why this person matters
Locke's empiricism became a reference point for later arguments about nature and nurture and about how learning shapes the mind. He also set out an influential account of personal identity, which the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy calls revolutionary.
Main contributions
Ideas from experience
In the Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) he described the mind as a blank sheet shaped by experience. Its two sources of ideas are sensation and reflection, the mind's awareness of its own operations.
Argument against innate knowledge
Book I of the Essay argues that there is no good evidence for innate principles or ideas.
Account of personal identity
His account of personal identity in Book II, chapter 27 of the Essay is called revolutionary by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which gives it a separate entry.
Context and limits
Locke was secretary to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas, and scholars dispute how far he shaped the Fundamental Constitutions of the Carolinas; David Armitage argues that a clause giving freemen absolute power over enslaved people stayed unchanged. His patron Shaftesbury was sub-governor of the Royal African Company, and Locke assisted him. Scholars disagree on whether his theory of slavery was meant to justify Atlantic slavery.
In your introductory course
History and research methods.Cited in history and development chapters for the blank-slate idea and the nature versus nurture debate. His role in colonial administration belongs to the fuller historical picture.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.2. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1683
He went into exile in Holland after the discovery of the Rye House Plot.
- 1689
The Essay Concerning Human Understanding was published.
- 1696
He became an influential member of the Board of Trade and Plantations when it was revived, serving until 1700.
Source
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, John LockeReference work. Reference article inspected.