John Locke
John Locke in his lifetime became a highly influential philosopher. His works crossed different fields and topics including political philosophy, epistemology, and education. Locke was an empiricist's and made great contributions to epistemology. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion. Empiricists were individuals looking for a construct of knowledge within the framework of sense data whose aim was to develop a probable hypothesis about the world. In this paper I’ll be sharing some brief history of Locke’s life and explaining his philosophy. John Locke was born on August 29, 1632, in Wrington, Somerset, England. He lived during one of most extraordinary centuries of English political …show more content…
One of Locke’s most famous essays, “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” (1689), outlined a theory of mind and human knowledge, identity and selfhood (Connolly). Locke in his essay categorized knowledge into three kinds (1) intuitive knowledge that we gain through interpretation (2) demonstrative knowledge that gain through reasoning with facts (3) sensitive knowledge that we gain through the senses (Connolly). “To Locke, knowledge was not the discovery of anything either innate or outside of the individual, but simply the accumulation of “facts” derived from sensory experience” (Connolly). He refused to believe Plato's and Descartes prior notions when it came to innate ideas and knowledge (Uzgalis). Locke also believed that we are all born as “tabula rasa”, or blank slates, where people have the potential to know things, but nothing is set in stone. According to Locke, humans from birth acquire knowledge through experience of the world, instead of innately (“John Locke”). He also claimed that knowledge is a connection, or relationships, between ideas (Connolly). Ideas, are building blocks of knowledge, and people are not born knowing, but have the ability to know or learn through experience and sensation. People are able to know something when they connect ideas to the world around them, thus acquiring …show more content…
However, most people were confused as to “primary qualities exist independent of the knower” and “how [ ] people [can] trace them back to experience if the knower does not experience them” (“Empiricism-Berkeley and Idealism”). It was somewhat of a paradox. Many philosophers pointed this problem out and the inconsistencies in Locke’s philosophy and argument (Uzgalis). One of the more vocal critics of Locke’s philosophy was Bishop George Berkeley, who was also a well known and respected English philosopher and idealist. Berkeley did not believe that ideas can be traced to objects in the world, like Locke claimed (Uzgalis). Instead he thought that because things are changing continuously it is impossible to trace ideas. “We do not perceive things as they are but rather things as we perceive them” (Uzgalis). Berkeley saw the flaws and inconsistencies in Locke’s system and instead of believing a flawed system, took the stance that ideas are the only things that exist (Uzgalis). Berkeley pointed out that if all people know are their own experiences, how do they know that an external world even exists, as Locke believed? (Cuddy) Berkeley “considered Locke and other philosophers to have opened the door to atheism and scepticism by casting doubt on the senses” ("Empiricism - Berkeley and Idealism"). In
John Locke in his lifetime became a highly influential philosopher. His works crossed different fields and topics including political philosophy, epistemology, and education. Locke was an empiricist's and made great contributions to epistemology. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion. Empiricists were individuals looking for a construct of knowledge within the framework of sense data whose aim was to develop a probable hypothesis about the world. In this paper I’ll be sharing some brief history of Locke’s life and explaining his philosophy. John Locke was born on August 29, 1632, in Wrington, Somerset, England. He lived during one of most extraordinary centuries of English political …show more content…
One of Locke’s most famous essays, “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” (1689), outlined a theory of mind and human knowledge, identity and selfhood (Connolly). Locke in his essay categorized knowledge into three kinds (1) intuitive knowledge that we gain through interpretation (2) demonstrative knowledge that gain through reasoning with facts (3) sensitive knowledge that we gain through the senses (Connolly). “To Locke, knowledge was not the discovery of anything either innate or outside of the individual, but simply the accumulation of “facts” derived from sensory experience” (Connolly). He refused to believe Plato's and Descartes prior notions when it came to innate ideas and knowledge (Uzgalis). Locke also believed that we are all born as “tabula rasa”, or blank slates, where people have the potential to know things, but nothing is set in stone. According to Locke, humans from birth acquire knowledge through experience of the world, instead of innately (“John Locke”). He also claimed that knowledge is a connection, or relationships, between ideas (Connolly). Ideas, are building blocks of knowledge, and people are not born knowing, but have the ability to know or learn through experience and sensation. People are able to know something when they connect ideas to the world around them, thus acquiring …show more content…
However, most people were confused as to “primary qualities exist independent of the knower” and “how [ ] people [can] trace them back to experience if the knower does not experience them” (“Empiricism-Berkeley and Idealism”). It was somewhat of a paradox. Many philosophers pointed this problem out and the inconsistencies in Locke’s philosophy and argument (Uzgalis). One of the more vocal critics of Locke’s philosophy was Bishop George Berkeley, who was also a well known and respected English philosopher and idealist. Berkeley did not believe that ideas can be traced to objects in the world, like Locke claimed (Uzgalis). Instead he thought that because things are changing continuously it is impossible to trace ideas. “We do not perceive things as they are but rather things as we perceive them” (Uzgalis). Berkeley saw the flaws and inconsistencies in Locke’s system and instead of believing a flawed system, took the stance that ideas are the only things that exist (Uzgalis). Berkeley pointed out that if all people know are their own experiences, how do they know that an external world even exists, as Locke believed? (Cuddy) Berkeley “considered Locke and other philosophers to have opened the door to atheism and scepticism by casting doubt on the senses” ("Empiricism - Berkeley and Idealism"). In