BIOGRAPHY

John Locke was born in Wrington, Somerset, the son of a Puritan lawyer. His father fought on the side of the Parliament against Charles I, and Locke himself was a lifelong defender of the parliamentary system.

As a teenager, Locke attended Westminster School, studying classics under the harsh discipline of the time. He later condemned the English educational system for its brutality and one-sided emphasis on the past. In 1652, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, where he received his B.A. in 1656 and an M.A. in 1658. Again, he found his Oxford education obsessed with the past--in particular the Scholasticism of the late Middle Ages. Hence, he sought knowledge in the emerging sciences. In 1659, he was named a Senior Student at Oxford--a position he held until he lost it for political reasons in 1684.

In 1662, Locke met Lord Ashley, the Earl of Shaftesbury. Locke and Shaftesbury became close friends and in 1667 Locke went to live with Shaftesbury as his personal physician, securing his medical degree and license in 1674. Locke also helped Shaftesbury with several projects, including the writing of a constitution for the colony of Carolina. As a member of Shaftesbury's entourage, Locke traveled extensively and met many of the leading thinkers of his day.

When Shaftesbury became the leader of the parliamentary opposition to the king, Locke's friendship became a liability. Shaftesbury was tried for treason in 1681; and although he was acquitted, he fled to Holland where he died in 1683. Without the backing of his powerful patron, Locke also fled to Holland where he became an advisor to William and Mary of Orange. Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which removed Locke's enemy, James II, from the throne, Locke returned home in the company of William and Mary--now king and queen of England.

Following his return to England, Locke published his two most important works, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) and Two Treatises of Government (1690). Locke spent the rest of his life writing and serving the new government as Commissioner of Appeals and, later, as Commissioner of Trade and Plantations. He died quietly at the home of a friend in 1704.

EPISTEMOLOGY

Locke begins his first major work, Essays Concerning Human Understanding, with several arguments against the Cartesian notion of innate ideas. He claims that the mind is a tabula rasa, a blank tablet or "white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas." All ideas come from one source: experience. Experience in turn is of two types: sensation or reflection. Sensations are derived from our sensory perceptions of the external world. Reflection, on the other hand, provides ideas by the mind "reflecting on its own operations within itself."

Having explained the origin of ideas, Locke then explains the nature of ideas. All ideas are either simple or complex. Simple ideas are uncompounded; that is, they cannot be broken down further, such as the ideas of "sweetness" or "redness." Complex ideas are composed of two or more simple ideas, such as the idea of a red, sweet apple. Locke then classifies simple and complex ideas by sources (sensation, reflection, or both).

Having explained the sources of ideas, Locke next asks if the ideas that come from sensation actually resemble the qualities of the external objects that gave rise to them. He answers first by dividing qualities into primary and secondary. Primary qualities are "utterly inseparable" from external objects regardless of their state--such qualities include solidity, extension, figure, motion, rest, and number. On the other hand, secondary qualities are "nothing in the objects themselves, but powers to produce various sensations in us by their primary qualities." These secondary qualities would include such things as colors, sounds, tastes, and the like. So, for example, the primary qualities of an apple (a solid, being extended in space, etc.) have the power to produce the secondary quality of a sweet taste and a red color. This analysis means that the world as we experience it is only a representation of the way the world actually is. The blooming, buzzing, colorful world of our experience is not the real world.

Finally, Locke asks what these primary and secondary qualities are qualities of. He argues that there must be "some substratum wherein [ideas] do subsist, and from which they do result, which therefore we call substance." Although we cannot have any idea of substance, nor can we explain the concept, we must posit substance as a "supporter" of qualities--a "something I know not what," Locke said.

Locke's other major work, Two Treatises Concerning Civil Government, treats political theory. The First Treatise attacks the patriarchal absolutism of Sir Robert Filmer, a contemporary royalist, and the Second Treatise presents Locke's own ideas. Using much of Hobbes' terminology, Locke agrees with Hobbes that in a state of nature all persons are free and equal. While such a state is clearly inconvenient, it is not "a war of every man against every man," requiring all to surrender their rights to a sovereign. Instead, Locke argues for a social contract where people do not relinquish their rights to a sovereign but enter into an agreement with mutual rights and responsibilities. Locke insists that the rights of "life, liberty, and property" remain with the people. If the government does not abide by the terms of the contract, the people have the right to dissolve the contract and establish a new government. Locke's views greatly influenced Thomas Jefferson and the structure of American government.