This page is a brief and basic introduction to a few summary points about John Locke's life and philosophy. It is no substitute for an original source by the philosopher or a more in-depth analysis by experts in his work. The following page mainly references Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

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John Locke- (1632-1704) English philosopher and supporter of empiricism, famous for "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" and "Second Treatise of Government". 

He was the son of a middle class Puritan family in Somerset, and studied at Oxford. He made contact with a number of the members of the new Royal Society, which included Robert Boyle and Issac Newton.

In 1683 he fled England and went to the Netherlands to escape the Catholic King, Charles II. (He had been involved in discussions concerning resistance to the king.) He writings were much less intended for the university or academia of the time, and he was involved in the politics and society of his time.

    1. No Innate Ideas
    2. How we get Ideas, Types of Ideas, Qualities
    3. Substances, Knowledge, Essences

[1]. NO INNATE IDEAS

Locke's basic aims in the Essay are to question knowledge. More specifically, to question the origin, certainty, and extent of human knowledge.

When Locke uses the term ‘idea’, he is referring to that which serves best to stand for whatever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks.

An innate principle is a primary notion that exists in the mind of man from the very first moment of his being. The two basic kinds of innate principles are speculative and practical.

Locke tries to show that there are no innate ideas in Book 1, chapter 4 because this is the last section before Locke begins to discuss how the understanding of man actually occurs. To continue, Locke must first set down the rule that there are no innate ideas.

Locke advocates a certain amount of skepticism in his inquiry into human understanding, but does not believe that we should doubt everything. He does not state that it is impossible for us to disbelieve everything, because we certainly cannot know everything. Rather, Locke states that someone who becomes impotent in inquiry because he has doubted everything is not using his faculties to their full extent.

Locke uses vivid analogy to describe his point. One analogy related the one who doubts everything to the man who sits and perished because, rather than use his legs, he tries to fly. He continues by declaring that the goal of his essay is not to know all things, but to know those things which concern our conduct.

The argument for innate principles from ‘universal consent’ is based upon the assumption that all people have common beliefs and understandings from birth.

Some common examples are the inference that all people believe in a god at birth, or that all people must agree that ‘what is, is’. However, Locke states that even the most fundamental of rules will not always be known innately, rather the faculties to understand ‘what is, is’ must first be developed.

Locke continues his refute of all innate principles by examining the ‘assenting as soon as proposed’ argument. This states that all men eventually reach the same conclusions about nature and about innate ideas because they are all given the same propositions which are initially lodges in an understanding that does not come forth without teaching.

However, Locke argues that if this is true, then the propositions must also be innate. This will cause there to be a large number of innate principles, many of which seem to be learned. For example, Locke states that if these principles are innate then men must have some innate knowledge of maxims, and of numbers to understand, "that one and two are equal to three, and two and two are equal to four; and sweetness is not bitterness."

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1.Locke, Essay. Book I, Ch. 5-6
2.Locke, Book I. Ch. 18

[2]. HOW WE GET IDEAS, TYPES OF IDEAS, QUALITIES

According to Locke, we ultimately get our ideas from experience. Experience comes from either our perception through our senses or our reflection upon those perceptions. Locke summarizes, "These two (sensation or reflection) are the fountains of knowledge, from whence all the ideas we have, or can naturally have, do spring."

Locke suggests that we think of the twenty-four letters in the alphabet, and imagine the number of words that can be formed using those letters. This example serves to demonstrate how all of our complex and vast ideas can come from a number simpler ideas, such as our ideas about the limited twenty-four letters of the alphabet.

An "idea", according to Locke, is whatever the mind perceives in itself, or is the immediate object of perception. A "quality" of something is the power to produce any idea in the mind. His first example is a snowball, which has the ability to produce the ideas of white, cold, and round in us. Therefore, such things are qualities of the snowball.

Primary qualities are those things or properties that are inseparable from the body or thing in question. Locke uses the example of a grain of wheat. No matter what is done to the wheat, it retains its primary qualities. One can cut the wheat, and it still has such things as extension, solidity, figure, and mobility.

Secondary qualities are those powers in things or bodies that are able to produce sensations in us, but are qualities which do not necessarily exist in the objects themselves. Colors, sounds and tastes are examples of secondary qualities that are produced by, but do not truly exist in, objects or things.

Simple ideas are those ideas that cannot be created or destroyed, and have a uniform appearance. Nothing can be plainer to man or more clear and distinct than a simple idea. Locke lists a number of examples, including the blind man that never sees colors and will never see colors because he has no basis to do so, trying to imagine a taste which has never affected the palate, or trying to imagine a sixth or seventh sense. Each of these things does not seem possible. Complex ideas are, at the most basic level, made in the mind out of simple ideas. Locke lists three ways in which complex ideas can be formed. First, by combining several simple ideas into compound ones. Second, by bringing two ideas together, whether simple or complex, and setting them next to each other to be observed separately. Third, an abstraction, which separates a part of something from its real whole. The three types of complex ideas are modes, substances, and relations. Modes are those complex ideas that are dependent on the substances they refer to, such as the ideas murder and beauty. Substances are combinations of simples ideas that represent distinct particular things that exist by themselves, such as the idea of man is an idea that brings the simpler ideas of motion, thought, reasoning and a number of other ideas together. Relations are those ideas that compare one thing to another, such as the ideas of space and time. Locke uses the example of pounding an almond in order to show that secondary qualities do not necessarily exist in the thing or body itself. If one crushes and almond, the white color changes to a more dirty or darker color. Also, the sweet taste will become an oily one. Therefore these qualities do not necessarily exist in the object, but are merely the power of the object to create in us certain perceptions like color and taste. This is the definition of a secondary quality.

"Locke", 2010, graphic drawing by Anthony Peter Iannini

In the same light, Locke uses the example of water being able to produce the sensation of hot in one hand and cold in the other.

Therefore, because a thing or body can not posses two conflicting real qualities, such as being a triangle and circle at the same time, these qualities do not truly exist in the thing or body itself. Through these examples Locke ultimately seeks to show the difference between qualities in bodies (primary qualities) and the ideas produced by bodies in the mind (secondary qualities).

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Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II.i.2
Locke, Essay, Book II.vii.10
Locke, Essay, Book II.viii.8
Locke, Essay, Book II.viii.9-10
Locke, Essay, Book II.ii.1-3
Locke, Essay, Book II.xii.1-2
Locke, Essay, Book II.xii.3-8
Locke, Essay, Book II.viii.20-22

[3]. SUBSTANCES, KNOWLEDGE, ESSENCES

A complex idea is made by combining several simple ideas into one compound idea. Our ideas of substances are complex ideas because our idea of a substance is our bringing together a number of ordinary, simple ideas.

For Locke, substances are kinds of things that result from the combination of simple ideas, such as a man, a horse, a swan, and gold. The complex idea of the sun is the combination of the simpler ideas of bright, hot, round, yellow, etc, and therefore is a substance.

Locke states that our knowledge is, basically, the perception of the agreement or disagreement of any of our ideas. As such, we know that white is not black and that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles.

According to Locke, ideas can agree or disagree in four ways. First, identity or diversity, which includes "that which is, is" or the idea that the mind agrees with itself.

Second, relation, which includes the perception of the relation between any two ideas. Third, co-existence or necessary connection, which belongs particularly to substances and to the ideas that always accompany those substances. Fourth, real existence, which includes those things which exist without the mind, like "God is."

The difference between a "nominal essence" and a "real essence" lies in the difference between what we define something to be and what something really is. The nominal essence of gold, for example, includes those things that constitute the definition of the word "gold", such as a certain color of yellow, a certain weight and hardness. However, the real essence of gold lies in what those qualities we use to describe the nominal essence themselves depend upon.

In such a way, we know the nominal essence of man to be those qualities (moving sensation, reasoning, etc.) that combine to form man. We do not, however, know the real essence of man, because we would have to know what the qualities of man depend upon. Only the creator of man (or his angels) could possibly know the real essence of man or, in other words, what the qualities of man depend upon.

Locke thinks that there can be "no science of bodies" and "much less of spirits" in relation to the aspects of the body and the spirit. Locke is again bringing up the point that we do not know the underlying nature of either body or spirit. If the nature of either bodies or spirits includes infinite division, then we will never be able to reach the true mechanisms of either. In this way, only the creator is possibly able to know the true nature of either.

He does, however, think that our ideas of the body are as justified and as clear as that of the spirit. But in relation to the notion of science and method, the more tangible aspects of bodies seem to lend themselves more to science, while the immaterial aspects of spirit do not lend themselves to such method of study. This does not mean that science can determine the underlying nature of either bodies or spirits. Hence there can be no science of bodies and much less of spirits.