The Age of Enlightenment - the Age of Reason - a time of intellectual awakening.

John Locke’s mother died when he was a young child, and his father was a “country lawyer” and a captain in the Parliamentary Army during the Civil War, and he too died when he was still young. Locke was elected to a life of studentship at Christ Church, and seemed to be destined to become a cleric except for the fact that the authorities did not appreciate his anti-aristotelian views, Locke believed that matter and life were not static. He was educated at the University of Oxford and lectured on Greek, rhetoric, and moral philosophy at Oxford from 1661 to 1664. Although Locke studied medicine he did not receive a degree, but was willing to help out those with medical problems and became known as Dr. Locke.

Locke’s two principle works: Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government. The core of Locke’s beliefs may be found in Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), here he established the principles of modern Empiricism (we learn through experience), Locke attacked the rationalist doctrine of innate ideas. In his essay, Two Treatises of Government, he wrote that government rests on popular consent and rebellion is permitted when the government does not hold up its end of the agreement (protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness).

Locke was a dualist in his belief of God, meaning he did not consider man to be a divine creature fixed with ideas on coming into this world. The mind begins blankly, and acquires knowledge through the senses and through a process of reflection.

Although considered to be a talented logician, Locke was not a tremendously skilled mathematician. He was a moderate empiricist (knowledge through experience), who believed the study of human beings was themselves, not an abstract God. Locke was considered by many to be an extremely judicious and methodical genius.

Publications

Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Two Treatises of Civil Government