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JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) Introduction and overview of the Essay

JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) Introduction and overview of the Essay. Locke’s biography. 1632-1704 Physician and member of the Royal Society Associate of scientist-philosophers Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton Initially based in Oxford, later flees to Holland.

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JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) Introduction and overview of the Essay

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  1. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) Introduction and overview of the Essay

  2. Locke’s biography • 1632-1704 • Physician and member of the Royal Society • Associate of scientist-philosophers Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton • Initially based in Oxford, later flees to Holland

  3. Locke’s biography (continued) --Political affiliations and career • Locke’s patron is Lord Shaftesbury, leader of the parliamentary ‘Whig’ opposition to the Stuart dynasty (Charles II and James II) • The silver shant episode • The Constitution of Carolina • Locke flees with Shaftesbury to exile in Holland • And eventually returns to England with the overthrow of the Stuarts in the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688

  4. Locke’s biography (continued) --Major publications • Locke probably composed the bulk of his major works in exile. They were all published just after Locke’s Whig party triumphs in 1688. • His most important works: • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) • Two Treatises of Civil Government (1689) • A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)

  5. The project of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding • The main project: To urge an ‘epistemological turn’ in philosophy • To combat the doctrines of innate ideas and innate knowledge • To impose an appropriate humility on our speculative reasonings in metaphysics and the sciences • To advance various ‘deflationary’ positions in metaphysics, in keeping with proper epistemic humility (for instance, on free will, substance, personal identity, the mind-body problem.) • To advocate for the ‘new science’

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