JOHN LOCKE is Born August 29, 1632 Wrington, Somerset, England.

Died October 28, 1704

(aged 72). Era 17th-century philosophy (Modern philosophy) Region Western Philosophy
Main interests
Metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of mind, education, economics.
Notable ideas Tabula rasa, "government with the consent of the governed", state of nature;
rights of life, liberty and property
Influences
Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Avicenna, Grotius, Rutherford, Descartes, Hooker,
Filmer,Pufendorf, Hobbes, Polish Brethren (religious group whose ideas were incorporated into
Locke's theories)
Influenced : Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer, Berkeley, Burke, Paine, Smith, Voltaire, Condillac,

JOHN LOCKE Life and works

• A proponent of the school of Empiricism
• Reject the philosophy that man has innate ideas
• The beginning of knowledge is through sense Experience
• Gives the analogy of the man to a blank tablet or “Tabula rasa”
• The two fountains of knowledge are sensation and reflection
• There are two kinds of ideas: The simple and The complex ideas.
• There are degrees of knowledge: a) Intuitive knowledge b) Demonstrative knowledge c)
Sensitive knowledge

Rationalist or Empiricist
-Locke believed that we gain knowledge by experience, this is called empiricism
-Locke agreed with Aristotle that we are not born with innate ideas, and that we learn through
experience
Issues with Knowledge
-Locke’s theory was that the only way we learn is by tasting, smelling, touching, and hearing
the external world
-Locke believed that there were two types of ideas, Simple and Complex

 Simple ideas are easy sensations like feeling a hot stove

 Complex ideas are a grouping of simple ideas like when you look at a banana, you see it
is yellow (color) it is mushy (texture) it is sweet (taste) these ideas form the idea of a
banana
Locke stated that all things have primary and secondary qualities

 -Primary: height and weight (undeniable truths)

 -Secondary: rely on subjective or personal judgments (color, taste and sound)

From Sense Experience to Ideas

 Sense Experience = You touch ice

 Sensation = Cold
 Impression in the Mind = Ice is cold
 Reflection: Ice = cold
 Idea =If you touch ice, it will be cold
Responding to? Different from?

 Locke disagreed with Rene Descartes, he believed that humans are born without any
knowledge of the world. Descartes borrowed ideas from Plato, he believed that we are
all born with innate ideas
 Locke agreed with Aristotle’s theory that humans are born with a clean slate, and that
we learn while we grow, experiencing the world as we go. Aristotle believed that we
gain knowledge by experiencing the world with our senses .
Vocabulary SENSE: Sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch SENSATION: The operation or function
of the senses; perception or awareness of stimuli through the senses REFLECTION: Thinking
about what you experienced, processing the information IMPRESSION: The first and immediate
effect of an experience or perception upon the mind QUALITIES: Essential or distinctive
characteristic, property, or attribute