An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

“This, therefore, being my purpose—to inquire into the original, certainty, and extent of human knowledge, together with the grounds and degrees of belief, opinion, and assent—I shall not at present meddle with the physical consideration of the mind.”

Although Locke does not explore the physical processes of the brain, his theories hold interesting implications in the world of neuroscience. This quotation outlines the philosopher’s line of scientific inquiry. He seeks to understand how the mind forms and maintains knowledge and ideas. By breaking down ideas into smaller parts, Locke’s ideas reveal further truths about the neurological workings of the brain.

“The senses at first let in particular ideas, and furnish the yet empty cabinet, and the mind by degrees growing familiar with some of them, they are lodged in the memory, and names got to them.”

Empiricism is the core of Locke’s argument. The philosopher challenges the accepted theory of innate knowledge and proposes that the mind comes into the world as a blank sheet of paper, which experience fills with knowledge. As an advocate for science and observation, Locke views each person as a scientist, taking in information by watching and experiencing the world through the senses. This information is stored as simple ideas; reflection and perception help shape ideas into more complex thoughts. This aligns with the themes The Tabula Rasa Theory and Empiricism and the Role of Experience.

“Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all character, without any ideas. How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience.”

Like the previous quotation, this passage contributes to the themes The Tabula Rasa Theory and Empiricism and the Role of Experience. Locke proposes that there is no such thing as an innate principle. Even ideas that seem universally accepted are planted in the mind through culture and experience. Locke shows how knowledge builds by degrees, pointing to how children’s simple understanding of the world grows deeper over time.

“Because, though they pass there continually, yet, like floating visions, they make not deep impressions enough to leave in their mind clear, distinct, lasting ideas, till the understanding turns inward upon itself, reflects on its own operations, and makes them the objects of its own contemplation.”

Locke proposes that taking the time to think intentionally about knowledge and ideas contributes to greater understanding and deeper meaning. Without intention, ideas bounce around in the mind, disconnected and unrealized. By actively thinking and comparing, the mind finds patterns and achieves clarity.

“Nature never makes excellent things for mean or no uses: and it is hardly to be conceived that our infinitely wise Creator should make so admirable a faculty which comes nearest the excellency of his own incomprehensible being.”

Locke’s influence on the Age of Enlightenment is great because of his support and advocacy for scientific observation and logic. However, throughout the text, Locke credits God with contributing to the success of human knowledge. The philosopher proposes that all ideas form through sensation and reflection—and God imparts the abilities to sense and reflect. Locke asserts that God made humans in his image, and the processes of thinking represent that divine reflection. This idea contributes to the theme The Spiritual Nature of Knowledge.

“It has therefore pleased our wise Creator to annex to several objects, and the ideas which we receive from them, as also to several of our thoughts, concomitant pleasure, and that in several objects, to several degrees, that those faculties which he had endowed us with might not remain wholly idle and unemployed by us.”

Locke explores the idea of a human obligation to learn through the theme The Spiritual Nature of Knowledge. Because God imparted the ability to sense and perceive, humans have a holy duty to pursue understanding. This belief aligns with Aristotle’s determination in Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle claims that the only way to achieve happiness is through virtue, and the greatest virtuous action is contemplation, or study. For these philosophers, the pursuit of knowledge represents a spiritual commitment to something greater than themselves.

“Whoever reflects on what passes in his own mind cannot miss it. And if he does not reflect all the words in the world cannot make him have any notion of it.”

Throughout the text, Locke emphasizes the importance of intention. He suggests that passive thinking contributes little to understanding. Instead, the individual must actively consider ideas and find patterns. The addition of reflection and perception alters the empiricist argument. Pure empiricism leaves the heavy lifting to sensory experience. Locke proposes that a secondary component exists—the consideration of the ideas presented through the senses—that increases understanding.

“Thus the ideas, as well as children, of our youth often die before us: and our minds represent to us those tombs to which we are approaching: where, though the brass and marble remain, yet the inscriptions are effaced by time, and the imagery moulders away.”

Repetition is the key to the retention of an idea. When humans encounter the same idea repeatedly or force themselves to consider the idea multiple times, the idea has a better chance of lasting. Those ideas that are fleeting—that appear and then never reappear—are lost to the human mind.

“If we trace the progress of our minds, and with attention observe how it repeats, adds together, and unites its simple ideas received from sensation or reflection, it will lead us further than at first perhaps we should have imagined.”

This quotation reiterates the ideas of the theme Empiricism and the Role of Experience. Although Locke does not call this process “patternmaking,” the term perfectly applies to the thought action he describes. Locke suggests that by finding the relationships between ideas—moving between cause and effect, comparison and contrast—philosophers develop complex ideas that are more nuanced and effective.

“God, every one easily allows, fills eternity; and it is hard to find a reason why anyone should doubt that He likewise fills immensity.”

The concepts “immensity” and “eternity” reflect Locke’s approach to thinking about knowledge. He shows how by following the threads of space and duration, instead of sitting contentedly with basic ideas, one discovers larger ideas like “eternity.” These complex ideas bring humans closer to God, whom Locke views as a vital part of knowledge acquisition. This idea relates to the theme The Spiritual Nature of Knowledge.

“Amongst all the ideas we have, as there is none suggested to the mind by more ways, so there is none more simple, than that of unity, or one: it has now shadow of variety or composition in it: every object our senses are employed about, every idea in our understandings, every thought of our minds, brings this idea along with it.”

Locke tackles ideas and language with the same scientific approach. He breaks each down into smaller components and then explores their many threads. Numbers—especially the number one—provide a foundational building block for numerous complex ideas. However, the initial concept of “one” is born through sensory experience. For example, a child is given a piece of candy while another child is given several pieces. The child quickly learns the concept of one; by viewing it in relation to the idea of several, the child develops a more complex understanding.

“I think it unavoidable for every considering, rational creature, that will but examine his own or any other existence, to have the notion of an eternal, wise being, who had no beginning: and such an idea of infinite duration I am sure I have.”

Locke asserts in this passage that all logical people conclude that God exists. The philosopher’s argument aligns with his personal beliefs, which the theme The Spiritual Nature of Knowledge reflects. Locke presents this argument directly after an exploration of number, duration, and infinity. He suggests that when humans follow the threads of simple ideas to more complex ideas, their minds naturally turn to an eternal Being. However, this does not mean that the concept of God is innate. Only through experience can a person deduce the existence of a higher power.

“When the mind turns its view inwards upon itself, and contemplates its own actions, thinking is the first that occurs.”

Again, Locke advocates for intention. He bemoans those who do not spend time thinking deeply about the world and the ideas that are conveyed to them through sensory experience. Like Aristotle, Locke sees contemplation as the greatest endeavor.

“For we love, desire, rejoice, and hope, only in respect of pleasure; we hate, fear, and grieve, only in respect of pain ultimately.”

Locke’s theory of sensation and reflection is predicated on the idea that God plays a role in the success of these two processes. Additionally, he proposes that certain tendencies and modes of experience—such as pleasure and pain—reveal further truths about the lessons God wants to impart to humans. Humans receive pleasure when things are good and pain when things are bad. Locke believes that God uses pleasure and pain as a tool to instruct individuals on the moral understanding of right and wrong.

“We are able, by our senses, to know and distinguish things, and to examine them so far as to apply them to our uses, and several ways to accommodate the exigences of this life. We have insight enough into their admirable contrivances and wonderful effects, to admire and magnify the wisdom, power, and goodness of their Author.”

This passage exemplifies how the two themes Empiricism and the Role of Experience and The Spiritual Nature of Knowledge connect. For Locke, modes of thinking and sensory experience serve a chief purpose—to glorify and worship God. Although he does not consider the worship of God innate, Locke proposes that it is a practical principle that represents the purpose of human existence.

“For there are no things so remote, nor so contrary, which the mind cannot, by this art of composition, bring into one idea, as is visible in that signified by the name universe.”

A striking component of Locke’s argument is that he does not see an end to the possibility of human knowledge. He believes that the divine nature of the human mind means that any complex idea is available to it as long as enough thinking and effort are applied.

“To find wherein personal identity consists, we must consider what person stands for—which, I think, is a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places; which it does only by that consciousness which is inseparable from thinking, and, as it seems to me, essential to it: it being impossible for any one to perceive without perceiving that he does perceive. When we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, meditate, or will anything, we know that we do so.”

As discussed in the theme Empiricism and the Role of Experience, Locke believes that the essence of humanity is consciousness and sensory experience. These components make people what they are. The mind separates humans from other animal species and connects them to God.

“God, having designed man for a sociable creature, made him not only with an inclination and under a necessity to have fellowship with those of his own kind, but furnished him also with language, which was to be the great instrument and common tie of society.”

Locke opens Book 3 with a clear message: God is responsible for language. The philosopher’s theories about language are decidedly scientific and reflect the common hypotheses of the period. However, for Locke, science and God intertwine, an idea that aligns with the theme The Spiritual Nature of Knowledge. God imparts the ability to speak, and language conveys knowledge, which Locke attributes to divine processes of the mind belonging only to humans.

“Words, in their primary or immediate signification, stand for nothing but the ideas in the mind of him that uses them, how imperfectly soever or carelessly those ideas are collected from the things which they are supposed to represent.”

Locke’s frustration with language in this passage foreshadows later chapters on the imperfection and abuses of language. The philosopher has already established The Spiritual Nature of Knowledge and the belief that humans have a divine obligation to pursue knowledge. This, he argues, cannot be done unless words—how humans signify ideas—are used accurately and precisely.

“Simple ideas, as has been shown, are only to be got by those impressions objects themselves make on our minds, by the proper inlets appointed to each sort.”

This statement represents a core idea of the theme Empiricism and the Role of Experience. Humans interact with the external world and intake information through the senses. These sensory impressions impress simple ideas upon the mind.

“The measure and boundary of each sort or species, whereby it is constituted that particular sort and distinguished from others, is that we call its essence, which is nothing but that abstract idea to which the name is annexed.”

The concept of “essences” was first introduced in Greek philosophy. Essences were believed to be the tangible qualities that helped humans understand species. For example, a dog—although physically different from others in its species—has tangible qualities that indicate it is a dog. Locke proposes that this type of essence is a real essence, which differs from a nominal essence. The latter refers to the abstract essences that may not speak to physical, tangible qualities. Nevertheless, humans can still understand classification through abstract, nominal essences.

“To think well, it is not enough that a man has ideas clear and distinct in his thoughts, nor that he observes the agreement or disagreement of some of them; but he must think in train, and observe the dependence of his thoughts and reasonings upon one another.”

This quotation reveals the importance Locke places on patternmaking. Only through exploring and examining direct and adverse relationships can humans form complex ideas. Additionally, Locke proposes that patternmaking requires thinking about the generalizations humans make and how ideas become intrinsically dependent.

“The different clearness of our knowledge seems to me to lie in a different way of perception the mind has of the agreement or disagreement of any of its ideas.”

Locke argues that all knowledge comes from four areas that consider how ideas relate to one another. Greater and deeper knowledge is developed by a commitment to these four areas and the exploration of relative ideas.

“From all which it is evident, that the extent of our knowledge comes not only short of the reality of things, but even of the extent of our own ideas.”

Earlier in the text, Locke argues that there is no limitation to what the human mind can do. However, he does propose that the mind limits itself. Humans can understand the world only to the degree that they are willing to pursue knowledge and the relationships between ideas.