An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding
-John Locke
Introduction
John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is one of the great books of the western
world. It stands as a seminal work in the realm of philosophical inquiry, unveiling profound insights
into the nature and origins of human knowledge. Published in 1690, this magnum opus
endeavours to dissect the intricate machinery of the human mind, exploring the genesis of ideas
and the intricacies of perception. It has done much to shape the course of intellectual
developments, especially in Europe and America. Locke's thorough examination delves into the
realms of empiricism and epistemology, challenging prevailing notions and laying the foundation
for subsequent philosophical discourse. As the Enlightenment era unfolded, Locke's treatise
emerged as a cornerstone text, shaping the intellectual landscape and influencing thinkers across
disciplines. In this essay, we navigate the corridors of Locke's profound exploration, tracing the
outlines of his arguments and the enduring impact of his ideas on our understanding of the human
experience.
About the Author
John Locke was an English philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most influential of
Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as “Father of Classical Liberalism”. He was born on
29 August 1632 in Somerset, England. He was also an Oxford academic and medical researcher.
His ideas helped lay the foundation for the enlightenment. He is considered as one of the first of
British empiricists. His works greatly affected the development of epistemology and political
philosophy. He found the works of modern philosophers such as René Descartes more interesting.
His works influenced Voltaire, Jean - Jacques Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers and
the American revolutionaries. Locke's main philosophy concern was with questions about the
capabilities of the human mind and the nature of knowledge. He was a critique of the rationalist
ideas that mind is equipped with innate ideas, ideas that do not arise from experience. He
postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate, or tabula rasa. He maintained that we are
born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived
from sense perception, a concept now known as empiricism. Locke was the first to define the self
through a continuity of consciousness. Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of
modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers
such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. His other major works are A
Letter Concerning Toleration and Two Treatises of Government. English Restoration, the Great
Plague of London, the Great Fire of London, and the Glorious Revolution were some major events
that happened during Locke’s lifetime. He died on 28 October 1704, and is buried in the
churchyard of the village of High Laver, east of Harlow in Essex.
Historical Context
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke emerged during a pivotal period in
intellectual history, the late 17th century. Published in 1690, this work unfolded against the
backdrop of the Enlightenment, an era marked by a profound shift in thought characterized by an
emphasis on reason, empirical inquiry, and a departure from traditional dogmas. Locke, an English
philosopher and a key figure in the Enlightenment, sought to unravel the intricacies of human
cognition in the wake of scientific advancements and societal changes. The Scientific Revolution
had ushered in a new era of empirical investigation, challenging long-held beliefs, while political
upheavals, such as the Glorious Revolution of 1688, stimulated reflections on governance and
individual rights. Locke's "Essay" thus emerged as a response to these intellectual and societal
currents, presenting a systematic exploration of the origin, nature, and limits of human knowledge
—an endeavour that profoundly influenced subsequent philosophical discourse and laid the
groundwork for modern empiricism.
A Journey Through The Essay
The central theme of the Essay is the exploration of the human mind's capacity for understanding
and knowledge. In the introductory chapter, Locke clarifies that the Essay is not intended to
contribute new knowledge but rather to eliminate intellectual obstacles hindering true
understanding. He specifically targets both medieval Scholastics and some of his contemporaries.
The Scholastics, who dominated European university teachings and relied heavily on Aristotle and
his commentators, were criticized by Locke for introducing obscure and often nonsensical
technical terms into philosophy. Locke considered them adversaries that needed to be overcome
for his own ideas about knowledge to gain widespread acceptance, a viewpoint he believed to be
entirely justified. Although the main matter of the essay is primarily a philosophical one, it has had
a direct bearing on such areas of thought as education, government, ethics, theology and religion.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is sectioned into four books. In Book I of the Essay,
Locke endeavours to counter the rationalist concept of inherent ideas. The subsequent section,
Book II, outlines Locke's theory of ideas, making a distinction between simple ideas acquired
passively—like "red," "sweet," and "round"—and complex ideas that are actively constructed,
encompassing numbers, causation, abstract concepts, substance ideas, identity, and diversity.
Locke also separates primary qualities, which authentically exist in bodies, such as shape and
motion, from secondary qualities, described as "capacities to elicit various sensations in us," such
as the qualities of "red" and "sweet." According to Locke, secondary qualities are contingent upon
primary qualities. Additionally, he presents a theory of personal identity, predominantly relying on
psychological criteria. Moving forward, Book III addresses language, while Book IV delves into
knowledge, covering intuition, mathematics, moral philosophy, natural philosophy, faith, and
opinion.
Book I
In the first book of his work, Locke outlines the three objectives of his philosophical endeavour: to
uncover the origins of our ideas, to understand the nature of having these ideas and the
fundamental essence of an idea, and to scrutinize matters of faith and opinion, aiming to establish
a logical course of action in situations where our knowledge is constrained. Locke successfully
redirects the emphasis of seventeenth-century philosophy from metaphysical inquiries to the
fundamental challenges of epistemology — the study of how individuals gain knowledge and
comprehension. In a comprehensive manner, Locke delves into various facets of human
understanding and the operations of the mind.
He attacks the Cartesian view of knowledge or Cartesianism, a philosophical and scientific tradition
derived from the writing of French philosopher René Descartes. Cartesian theory states that
human beings are born possessing innate knowledge. “One has certain knowledge of one’s own
existence, because one cannot think without knowing that one exists”. Thus it is opposed to the
tradition of Empiricism, which states that all our ideas and knowledge come ultimately from our
experiences. Locke replaces the theory of innate knowledge with his own signature concept, the
tabula rasa or blank slate, a view that the human mind is like a blank slate with no ideas, ie, empty
of ideas.
Locke acknowledged the presence of certain ideas in the mind from an early stage but contended
that these ideas are derived from sensory experiences that commence even in the womb. For
instance, distinctions in colours or tastes arise through sensory exposure. The universal
comprehension of concepts like sweetness, according to Locke, does not stem from innate ideas
but results from shared encounters with sweet tastes during early life. Locke puts forth an
additional argument against the idea of innate knowledge, asserting that individuals cannot
harbour ideas in their minds of which they are not consciously aware. Therefore, even the most
fundamental principles cannot be considered possessed by individuals until they are either taught
or arrive at these principles through independent thought.
Book II
After dismissing the notion of innate knowledge, in Book II, Locke aims to illustrate the origins of
knowledge. He opposes the idea that specific knowledge, such as the existence of God, certain
moral truths, or the principles of logic and mathematics, is inherent, ingrained in the human mind
from its inception. (Theory of Ideas)
Locke argues that an idea cannot be said to be "in the mind" until one is conscious of it. Ex: Human
infants have no conception of God, morals, logics or mathematical truths. According to Locke, the
idea is actually the object of perception. Ex: A tree in the external world causes an idea and this
idea, not the tree itself is what is perceived.
He proposes that knowledge is built up from ideas, either simple or complex. Simple ideas are
derived from sense experiences and it combines in various ways to form complex ideas. Therefore
the most basic units of knowledge are simple ideas, which come exclusively through experience.
Ex: Snowball is a simple idea. Its features/ideas that come to our mind, such as whiteness,
coldness, and roundness combine to form complex ideas.
There are two types of experience that allow a simple idea to form the human mind:
1. Sensation: when the mind experiences the world outside the body through the five senses.
2. Reflection: when the mind turns inward, recognizing ideas about its own functions, such as
thinking, willing, believing, and doubting.
Locke divides simple ideas into 4 categories: 1. Ideas we get from a single sense, such as sight or
taste. 2. Ideas created from more than one sense, such as shape and size; 3. Ideas emerging from
reflection and 4. Ideas arising from a combination of sensation and reflection, such as unity,
existence, pleasure, pain, and substance.
Locke goes on to explain the difference between primary and secondary qualities:
● Primary qualities: include its shape, size, weight, solidity & movements. They are primary in the
sense that these qualities exist, regardless of whether anyone perceives them.
● Secondary qualities: include colour, odour & taste. They are secondary in the sense that they
may be perceived by observers of the object, but they are not inherent in the object. Eg: a rose's
shape and the way it grows are primary because they exist regardless of whether they are
observed, but the rose's redness only exists for an observer under the right conditions of lighting
and if the observer's eye sight is functioning normally. According to Locke, every idea is an object
of some action of perception & thinking.
Personal Identity: Locke’s proposal was that personal identity consists of continuity of
consciousness. One is the same person as the person who existed last week or many years ago if
one has memories of the earlier person’s conscious experiences.
Locke’s treatment of the association of ideas: Ideas, Locke observes, can become linked in the
mind in such a way that having one idea immediately leads one to form another idea, even though
the two ideas are not necessarily connected with each other.
Book III
In Book III, Locke establishes a connection between words and the corresponding ideas they
represent. He argues that humans possess a unique ability to distinguish sounds into distinct forms
and attribute meanings to them, transforming these concepts into words and subsequently
constructing language. Locke asserts that words function as representations of ideas within the
mind of the individual using them, serving as the exclusive means through which thoughts are
communicated. The philosopher delves into the concept of abstract general ideas, emphasizing
that everything in the world is a specific "thing." General ideas, according to Locke, emerge when
we group together similar particular ideas, stripping away their differences until only the
commonalities remain. These shared attributes are then utilized to formulate a general term,
exemplified by the creation of terms like "cat," which encapsulates a general idea.
He proceeds to distinguish between real essence and nominal essence. Nominal essences: are the
specific collections of observable properties from which we create an abstract general idea. For eg:
we observe similarities between many different individual dogs and from these observations, form
our idea of what a dog is. Real essences: are the invisible structures and arrangements of
corpuscles or atoms that allow for those observable properties to be observable in the first place.
For eg: to return the case of dogs, if we could fully understand the biological structures and
processes that make a dog a dog, whether those would include DNA or other things as well, then
we would understand the real essence of dogs. Unlike the nominal essence, the real essence has
basics in reality.
Locke moves on to discuss language, pointing out natural weakness and common abuses of
language. The most significant problem with words is that they do not immediately and obviously
mean the same thing to all people.
This problem has four main causes: ● A word may imply a very complex idea. ● The ideas that
word finds for may have no constant standard anywhere in nature to judge them against. ● The
standard that ideas refer to may not be easily known. ● The meaning of a word and the real
nature of the thing referred to by word may not be exactly the same.
Locke also identifies six common abuses: ● People often use words without really following what
these words mean. ● People use words inconsistently. ● People purposefully make terms obscure
using old words for new and unusual uses or by introducing new terms without defining them. ●
People mistakenly believe that words refer to things rather than ideas. ● People try to use words
incorrectly to change their meaning. ● People assume that others know what they are saying
when they are not really being clear.
Locke suggests four remedies to counteract the natural shortcomings and the abuses of language:
● Never use a word without having a clear idea of what it means. ● Try to recognize the same
meaning for words so that we can communicate with a common vocabulary. ● If there is the
slightest chance that the meaning of your words will be unclear, define your terms. ● Always use
words consistently.
Book IV
In Book IV, Locke elucidates the characteristics and limitations of human knowledge. Locke
delineates knowledge as the understanding of the connections, agreements, or disagreements,
and incongruities among the ideas formed by humans. In essence, our knowledge is confined to
the realm of human ideas, and Locke emphasizes that it does not extend beyond this boundary.
According to Locke, the source of all knowledge lies solely in experience. Consequently, since ideas
are shaped by our experiences, and we cannot encounter every aspect of the world, our
knowledge is inherently constrained. In light of this, Locke introduces a categorization of
knowledge into three levels:
1. Intuitive knowledge: the immediate knowledge that the mind perceives at first sight. Ex: a
square is not a circle.
2. Demonstrative knowledge: it does not provide a constant and convincing connection between
the ideas.
Ex: God’s existence.
3. Sensitive knowledge: when the mind does not immediately perceives agreement or
disagreement of ideas. A blind man won’t be able to form a concept of Colours.
Conclusion
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a classic statement of empiricist epistemology.
Written in a straightforward, uncomplicated style, the Essay attempts nothing less than a
fundamental account of human knowledge, its origin in our ideas and application to our lives, its
methodical progress and inescapable limitations. The rejection of innate ideas, the emphasis on
the role of experience in shaping knowledge, and the nuanced exploration of language and
abstract ideas showcase the depth of Locke's intellectual inquiry.
Locke's proposition that the mind is a tabula rasa, a blank slate upon which experience inscribes its
impressions, has profound implications for our comprehension of human cognition. His discussions
on the formation of ideas, the association of thoughts, and the classification of knowledge into
intuitive, demonstrative, and sensitive provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the
contours of human understanding.
Moreover, Locke's reflections on the limitations of human knowledge serve as a humble
acknowledgment of the inherent constraints in our quest for understanding. By delineating the
boundaries of our knowledge within the realm of human ideas and experience, Locke encourages
a tempered and empirical approach to philosophical inquiry.
In the tapestry of "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding," Locke's ideas continue to
reverberate, challenging subsequent generations of thinkers to grapple with fundamental
questions about the nature of knowledge, the workings of the mind, and the intricacies of
language. As we engage with Locke's insights, we are invited to reflect not only on the content of
our understanding but also on the very processes that give rise to our thoughts and ideas.
