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John Locke (1632-1704): An introduction

Information: A brief overview of the life and philosophy of John Locke, who is regarded by many as the Father of Modern Empirical philosophy. Quotations are from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, unless otherwise noted. A version of this article was originally published on the website www.faithnet.org.uk.

British philosopher John Locke is often regarded as 'the father of modern empiricism', because of his arguments that knowledge must first and foremost be grounded in sense-based experience.

Locke lived at a time when science was placing an increasing emphasis on the empirical method. During his time at Westminster, but most notably at Christ Church: Oxford, Locke came into contact with some of the greatest pioneering minds of western science. He was greatly influenced by the work of Robert Boyle, and counted Isaac Newton as a friend.

We might assume that due to the company the esteemed company he kept, Locke would naturally be drawn towards an empirical methodology. However, throughout his work Locke was always concerned that people should never blindly accept the teachings of any person in 'authority', without questioning whether their teaching is sound.

Locke was probably drawn to empiricism because he found it a better way of explaining things, and probably because (like many others) he had begun to see that the particularly popular and influential Cartesian approach, based on the certainty of mathematical models and using these to explain and predict the ways things in the world operated, was significantly deficient when it came to putting many of its theories to the 'test' in the real world.

'The commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master-builders, whose mighty designs, in advancing the sciences, will leave lasting monuments to the admiration of posterity: but every one must not hope to be a Boyle or... Newton... it is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge' (Epistle to the Reader, Essay).

At the start of Book 2 of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Locke sets out the fundamentals of his empirical theory of knowledge:

'Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas:- How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE. In that all our knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives itself. Our observation employed either, about external sensible objects, or about the internal operations of our minds perceived and reflected on by ourselves, is that which supplies our understandings with all the materials of thinking. These two are the fountains of knowledge, from whence all the ideas we have, or can naturally have, do spring.' (2:1:2)

Locke believed his theory of knowledge is not only one that more readily explains a person's experience, and therefore one that will be most obvious to people once they begin to think about it, but that it is also the most common-sense view of knowledge.

In Book I of the Essay, Locke rejects the notion that we have innate knowledge in favour of one where we acquire knowledge through the senses. At the start of Book II he famously likens the mind to a blank page (aka tabula rasa), on which our ideas are written:

Since we are born with no innate (inner) knowledge, it must be that all our knowledge comes from outside of us; and this Locke understands as Experience.

However, there are two ways he talks about 'Experience'. Firstly, there is our direct and immediate experience of things in the world, or what Locke calls Sensation. Secondly, there is our experience of thinking about the things we have experienced (a process he calls Reflection), which is basically the experience of observing our thoughts.

Although the mind is filled by 'experience', this is an activity which involves both external and internal things.

Although Locke believes the mind is active in the knowing process, the order is always external first, then internal. The mind reflects on the range of sense-experience of things, in order to acquire knowledge. We do not speculate first, and then look for experiences to fit our ideas, as Rationalists propose. However, we can speculate and form hypotheses based on our experience of the way things are in the world.

Something to think about: In what way does Locke's theory of knowledge describe the modern scientific method, and in what way does it not?

How the learning experience of children confirms Locke's theory of knowledge

Throughout Book I (and at the start of Book II) of the Essay, Locke regularly asks the reader to consider the manner in which children learn, as evidence to support his epistemological theory; this being the notion that children are not born with but acquire knowledge through 'sensation' and 'reflection':

'He that attentively considers the state of a child, at his first coming into the world, will have little reason to think him stored with plenty of ideas, that are to be the matter of his future knowledge. It is by degrees he comes to be furnished with them... I think, it will be granted easily, that if a child were kept in a place where he never saw any other but black and white till he were a man, he would have no more ideas of scarlet or green, than he that from his childhood never tasted an oyster, or a pineapple, has of those particular relishes.' (2:1:6)

Thus as far as Locke is concerned, everything a child learns can be shown to be a product of their direct and reflexive experience.

Over time, Locke believes children naturally form associations between (and on the basis of) their immediate sensory experiences, which he also regards as evidence of a maturing (and mature) mind.

'Follow a child from its birth, and observe the alterations that time makes, and you shall find, as the mind by the senses comes more and more to be furnished with ideas, it comes to be more and more awake; thinks more, the more it has matter to think on. After some time it begins to know the objects which, being most familiar with it, have made lasting impressions. Thus it comes by degrees to know the persons it daily converses with, and distinguishes them from strangers.' (2:1:22)

This also means (for Locke) that a 'mature' person is someone who sees that there is more to life than just their immediate experiences. Of course, it is always up to the individual as to how much (and how far) they are prepared to examine their immediate experiences in light of them:

'Men... come to be furnished with fewer or more simple ideas from without, according as the objects they converse with afford greater or less variety; and from the operations of their minds within, according as they more or less reflect on them.' (2:1:7)