John Locke

« Voici, cher lecteur, ce qui a fait le divertissement de quelques heures de loisir que je n’étais pas d’humeur d’employer à autre chose. Si cet ouvrage a le bonheur d’occuper de la même manière quelque petite partie d’un temps où vous serez bien aise de vous relâcher de vos affaires plus importantes, et que vous preniez seulement la moitié tant de plaisir à le lire que j’en ai eu à le composer, vous n’aurez pas, je crois, plus de regret à votre argent que j’en ai eu à ma peine. »Nous reproduisons ici la traduction de Coste, celle-là même que Leibniz a sous les yeux en composant ses Nouveaux essais sur l’entendement humain. Elle a été faite en présence de Locke et avec son aide et acquiert ainsi la valeur d’un texte original

Notes and Introduction by Mark G. Spencer, Brock University, Ontario John Locke (1632-1704) was perhaps the most influential English writer of his time. His _Essay concerning Human Understanding _(1690) and _Two Treatises of Government _(1690)_ _weighed heavily on the history of ideas in the eighteenth century, and Locke’s works are often? rightly? presented as foundations of the Age of Enlightenment. Both the _Essay _and the _Second Treatise _(by far the more influential of the _Two Treatises_) were widely read by Locke’s contemporaries and near contemporaries. His eighteenth-century readers included philosophers, historians and political theorists, but also community and political leaders, engaged laypersons, and others eager to participate in the expanding print culture of the era. His epistemological message that the mind at birth was a blank slate, waiting to be filled, complemented his political message that human beings were free and equal and had the right to create and direct the governments under which they lived. Today, Locke continues to be an accessible author. He provides food for thought to university professors and their students, but has no less to offer the general reader who is eager to enjoy the classics of world literature.

In this, the second of his Two Treatises of Government, John Locke examines humankind's transition from its original state of nature to a civil society. According to Locke, legitimate government arises to enforce the natural law and the property rights of individuals; when a government fails to do this, or attempts to exert powers beyond those granted by the people, revolution is justified. One can see the lasting influence of Locke's ideas through their familiarity to the modern reader--the roots of classical liberalism are here, and the arguments presented in this text have relevance to any modern student of political theory. The introduction and annotations included in this edition are intended to contextualize the work and prevent misunderstanding, without advancing any particular scholarly interpretation or merely summarizing Locke's arguments. This edition has its origin in the acclaimed Broadview Anthology of Social and Political Thought and adheres to the anthology's format and high standards of accuracy and accessibility.

John Locke (29 August 1632 - 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.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 David Hume, Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Contrary to Cartesian philosophy based on pre-existing concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception. This is now known as empiricism. An example of Locke's belief in Empiricism can be seen in his quote, "whatever I write, as soon as I discover it not to be true, my hand shall be the forwardest to throw it into the fire." This shows the ideology of science in his observations in that something must be capable of being tested repeatedly and that nothing is exempt from being disproven. Challenging the work of others, Locke is said to have established the method of introspection, or observing the emotions and behaviors of one's self.Locke's concept of man started with the belief in creation. We have been "sent into the World by order, and about his business, are his Property, whose Workmanship are, made to last during his, not one anothers Pleasure." Like the two other very influential natural-law philosophers, Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf, Locke equated natural law with the biblical revelation, since in their view both had originated in God and could therefore not contradict each other. "As a philosopher, Locke was intensely interested in Christian doctrine, and in the Reasonableness he insisted that most men could not hope to understand the detailed requirements of the law of nature without the assistance of the teachings and example of Jesus."

John Locke's _Second Treatise of Government_ (c. 1681) is perhaps the key founding liberal text. _A Letter Concerning Toleration_, written in 1685 (a year when a Catholic monarch came to the throne of England and Louis XVI unleashed a reign of terror against Protestants in France), is a classic defense of religious freedom. Yet many of Locke's other writings--not least the Constitutions of Carolina, which he helped draft--are almost defiantly anti-liberal in outlook. This comprehensive collection brings together the main published works (excluding polemical attacks on other people's views) with the most important surviving evidence from among Locke’s papers relating to his political philosophy. David Wootton's wide-ranging and scholarly Introduction sets the writings in the context of their time, examines Locke's developing ideas and unorthodox Christianity, and analyzes his main arguments. The result is the first fully rounded picture of Locke’s political thought in his own words.

In 1695 John Locke published The Reasonableness of Christianity, an enquiry into the foundations of Christian belief. He did so anonymously, to avoid public involvement in the fiercely partisan religious controversies of the day. In the Reasonableness Locke considered what it was to which all Christians must assent in faith; he argued that the answer could be found by anyone for themselves in the divine revelation of Scripture alone. He maintained that the requirements of Scripture were few and simple, and therefore offered a basis for tolerant agreement among all Christians, and the promise of peace, stability, and security through toleration. This is the first critical edition of the Reasonableness: for the first time an authoritative annotated text is presented, with full information about sources, variants, amendments, and the publishing history of the work. Also provided in the editorial notes are cross-references, references to other works by Locke, definitions of terms, and other information conducive to an understanding of the text. Though modern interest has focused particularly on Locke's philosophy and political theory, increasing attention is being paid to his religious thought. These different strands cannot be understood properly in isolation from each other: so the broader aim of this edition is to help towards an improved understanding of his religious thought in the context of his work as a philosopher, political theorist, and exponent of religious toleration. In his editorial introduction John Higgins-Biddle investigates how Locke's ideas developed, and offers a critical assessment of the three main contemporary and subsequent interpretations of Locke's religious thought, all of which are shown to be unsatisfactory.

L'Essai sur l'entendement humain de Locke compte, desormais en France aussi, parmi les textes fondateurs de la modernite. Sans avoir eu l'influence d'un Descartes ou d'un Spinoza, Locke a synthetise de facon plus rigoureuse qu'on ne l'a longtemps cru l'esprit des Lumieres initiales. On retrouvera dans ce deuxieme tome de l'Essai (livres III et IV), ses positions sur le langage et le signe en general, sur la connaissance et sur les savoirs probables, sur la foi et l'enthousiasme, sur le rapport corps-esprit - positions a nouveau discutees de nos jours. Cette deuxieme edition, revue et corrigee, tente de concilier lisibilite et exactitude; elle reprend pour la premiere fois en France les notes de la cinquieme edition, qui citent des elements importants des controverses suscitees par le livre (sur la substance, la matiere, la resurrection des corps); plusieurs index facilitent l'utilisation de l'ouvrage.

Dans les Deux traites du gouvernement, Locke poursuit des fins polemiques, politiques et philosophiques. Le Premier traite s'oppose a la theorie du droit divin des rois lie a la primogeniture, theorie dont Filmer s'etait fait le protagoniste. Les arguments du Deuxieme traite doivent leur validite a l'effort dont ils procedent: l'effort de progres de la raison politique en general. Locke y defend son appui a la cause de la religion constitutionnelle de religion reformee. Il affirme que le gouvernement legitime ne peut se fonder ni sur la conquete, ni sur l'usurpation pas plus que sur la tyrannie.

Le succes des Essais de John Locke sur l'origine, les modalites et le but de l'entendement humain fut similaire au triomphe de Newton en physique. Cet ouvrage initie tout le courant empiriste qui le suit, ainsi que la psychologie comme science. Il reste, a ce jour, la plus etudiee des oeuvres de Locke. Les livres I et II, ici edites dans une traduction nouvelle, presentent l'acte fondateur (que reproduiront Berkeley et Hume) de la these sensualiste: la critique de l'inneisme et la source empirique de toute idee. Cette nouvelle traduction offre au lecteur un texte issu d'une lecture enrichie par trois siecles d'exegese.

Locke argued that religious belief ought to be compatible with reason, that no king, prince or magistrate rules legitimately without the consent of the people, and that government has no right to impose religious beliefs or styles of worship on the public. Locke’s defense of religious tolerance and freedom of thought was revolutionary in its time. Even today, his letter poses a challenge to religious intolerance, whether state-sponsored or originating from religious dogmatists. Based on both Locke’s original Latin and the seventeenth-century English translation of William Popple, this edition offers a reader-friendly version that remains loyal to the original text. In addition to a forty-page introduction that situates the _Letter_ in its historical and philosophical contexts, this edition includes excerpts from writings on religious toleration by William Penn, Baruch Spinoza, Pierre Bayle, and Samuel von Pufendorf, as well as generous selections from the famous Locke-Proast debates on religious toleration.

'To think often, and never to retain it so much as one moment, is a very useless sort of thinking' In An Essay concerning Human Understanding, John Locke sets out his theory of knowledge and how we acquire it. Eschewing doctrines of innate principles and ideas, Locke shows how all our ideas, even the most abstract and complex, are grounded in human experience and attained by sensation of external things or reflection upon our own mental activities. A thorough examination of the communication of ideas through language and the conventions of taking words as signs of ideas paves the way for his penetrating critique of the limitations of ideas and the extent of our knowledge of ourselves, the world, God, and morals. Locke's masterpiece laid the foundation of British empiricism and is of enduring interest to anyone exploring the development of philosophical thought. This sensitive abridgement uses P. H. Nidditch's authoritative text, and together with an illuminating introduction and other features, makes Locke's arguments more accessible.

This is the first of three volumes which will contain all of John Locke's writings which relate to An Essay concerning Human Understanding (except for those which appear in other volumes of the Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke). This volume contains an accurate version of the two earliest known drafts of the Essay. Virtually all of Locke's changes are recorded in footnotes. Volume I was largely completed by Peter Nidditch before his death in 1983. His pioneering editorial techniques won him acclaim for his edition of An Essay concerning Human Understanding in this series in 1975.