Anson Jeng and Caitlyn "Socks" Kennedy's summary of Locke's Essay on Human Understanding

John Locke’s Essays Concerning Human Understanding

In John Locke’s Essays Concerning Human Understanding, he explores how individuals acquire knowledge and understanding as well as other issues of epistemology. In contrast to earlier philosophers, in particular those of the Cartesian persuasion, Locke strongly rejects the idea that humans carry an innate center of knowledge. He argues that no individual is born with pre-existing truths. This concept of tabula rasa (Latin for “blank slate”) favors the nurture side of the nature versus nurture dialogue. Locke attempts to show that people are born with no knowledge whatsoever, and that all the knowledge we acquire must first be experienced.

Locke systematically refutes the idea of innate truths from several angles. He first argues that if one truth is innate, then all must be, and, conversely, that if one truth is adventitious, all other truths must follow suit. Locke secondly uses mathematical proofs as the counter for more theoretical maxims, such as “whatsoever is, is” and “it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be.” He reasons that, in order to accept a mathematical proposition as true, one must first understand the ideas of which the proof consists. This furthers his belief that our realm of knowledge is built on ideas that we have gathered, stacked onto each other to create new ideas.

Locke proposes that there is a sequence of events that lead to our acquisition of knowledge. First, the senses let in ideas, and the mind becomes familiar with them, lodging some in the memory and giving them names. The mind abstracts these ideas while learning the function of language. Finally, these ideas grow together in the mind, building on some, contrasting with others. This growth subsequently increases the ability of reason, which allows more truths to be gathered and deduced.

In confronting the debate regarding ideas that we seem to find within our minds, Locke suggests that we obtain knowledge through either sensation or reflection. Sensation is composed of the ideas brought to us through the senses, while reflections are those ideas that we find in our mind. Locke is adamant that reflection is not merely a discovery of a pre-existing truth, but an act of reason, a search through ideas we have obtained through experience to deduce a greater truth not discoverable through simple sensory experience.

While Locke’s position on the attainment of knowledge represents a polar opposite to Descartes’, the two share similar views on the categorization of ideas. One of these similarities is the concept of negation. Locke uses the example of silence, which is simply an absence of sound. He additionally uses the analogy of a snowball in the same manner as Descartes’ beeswax (from the Second Meditation) to demonstrate that secondary qualities are transient and primary qualities are representative of the snowball (beeswax).

Questions

1. In what ways do Locke and Descartes contradict each other? In what ways are they similar?
2. What effect did the concept of tabula rasa have on later philosophical schools?
3. Does Locke’s assertion that knowledge is obtained only through things outside ourselves oversimplify the nature versus nurture argument? Does this simplification discount the authority of God as established by Descartes?