Product Description

'I must apply my self to Experience; as far as that reaches, I may have certain Knowledge, but no farther.' 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107143 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Customer Reviews

Warning: Abridged
I won't go into the depths of Locke studies here. Suffice to say he was the first of the 'British Empiricists'; building on Descartes' ideas and beginning an epistemology that influenced Berkely, Hume and many others. The Essay is a (very) lengthy account of his ideas - in which he begins by denying the possibility of innate ideas and goes on to explain how we come by all our ideas, discussing on the way his influential ideas on personal identity and primary and secondary qualities.

The problem that the essay has is that it's over-long (at about 800 pages) and filled with rambling repetition. Not actually amnaging to get through it all myself, I thought this abridged version might contain the highlights as it were... Well, if you have only a passing interest, this book is cheap and does set out Locke's main ideas without much repetition. For serious study, however, I'd invest a bit more for an unabridged copy (the cheapest I think is Penguin Classics; the best the one edited by Nidditch)

Full version
I won't go into the depths of Locke studies here. Suffice to say he was the first of the 'British Empiricists'; building on Descartes' ideas and beginning an epistemology that influenced Berkely, Hume and many others. The Essay is a (very) lengthy account of his ideas - in which he begins by denying the possibility of innate ideas and goes on to explain how we come by all our ideas, discussing on the way his influential ideas on personal identity and primary and secondary qualities.

If you want the best scholarly version, it's undoubtedly Nidditch's Clarendon Press one. This version doesn't offer so much in the way of notes; but it has a basic introduction, original spelling and IMPORTANT: is the cheapest unabridged version of the Essay I've come across.