Critical Analysis of John Locke

Introduction

John Locke lived among the popular philosophers of the seventeenth century. John gained fame as the founder of British Empiricism, a school of thought. His work contributed to modern theories of liberal and limited government. His philosophy expanded to various sectors which include education theory, religious toleration and theology. Locke's fame is based on his most significant work, the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, where he provided an analysis of how the human mind acquires knowledge. He developed the empiricist theory which helps humans get ideas on life experiences. According to Locke, the mind has a capability of examining, comparing and combining ideas in various ways. Knowledge has a specific relationship between ideas (Anstey, 46). Through his work, John Locke emphasized on human mind philosophical examination as a key to the world's philosophical investigation. In a political view, Locke is well recognized as a pioneer of limited government whereby he used the natural lights theory in arguing the role of the government to the citizens. This article provides a broad analysis of John Locke as a philosopher.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

John Locke was born in the year 1632 in a village in Southwestern England, Wrington village. Locke's father served as a legal clerk of the English Civil War Parliamentary forces. John grew up in a stable family. He spent his childhood years in the West Country then moved to Westminster School in his teenage years. John lived as a successful member of Westminster where he joined the Christ Church in Oxford. His appreciation for traditional scholastic philosophy pushed him towards earning various academic and administrative posts in College (Ashcraft, 50). As he led his fellow undergraduates, Locke produced his earliest works, Essays on the Law of Nature. Through the article, he expressed his passion and devotion to studying natural philosophy and medicine. In 1667, he moved to London and united with his family. He spent most of his time tutoring Lord Ashley's son. His duty as Lord Ashely's personal physician exposed him to various prominent physicians such as Thomas Sydenham. He worked on his famous project, the Essay Concerning Human Understanding then moved to France for his political work, Two Treatises Concerning Government which was published in 1689. He ran to the Netherlands to avoid political persecution after Shaftesbury's death (Thomas, 67). He worked on the Essay and wrote on "Epistola de Toleranta". Locke's experiences in the Netherlands, France and England motivated his belief on the need for governments which have tolerance for religious diversity. During his later years, he focused on theology through his major work, "The Reasonableness of Christianity" He developed respiratory ailments during his adult years and died in October 1704. His works still create an impact to the society because he covered the main sectors which regulate the daily operations of humans.

In his writings, especially "The Essay" and "The Two Treaties", Locke developed various ethical views. He relates good deeds to human pleasure. In his individualistic perception, Locke does not give credit to altruistic pleasure. He asserts on the nonexistence of inborn attitudes which include ethical principles. As an empiricist, John concludes that humans must learn ethical principles through science. Locke shows his theist nature by suggesting that individuals can learn the natural ethic laws deductively or through revelations, an idea that relates natural law to divine law. In his works, Locke develops the principle of course of action by introducing the idea of the ultimate punishment. According to him, disobeying ethical laws results in long-term suffering. Locke's writing of the essay focuses on the analysis of the world and how humans can access it to have self-knowledge. He suggests that the ability of humans to understand their cognitive capabilities depends on scientific researches.

The Essay consists of four books which contribute to John Locke's objective of studying the human mind. In the first book, he states that human knowledge is not innate. According to Locke, language exists as a limiting factor in human understanding. The Essay considers ideas as fundamental mental content units which participate in human knowledge. The book introduces idea as an object of human understanding.

In the second book, Locke provides an alternative theory of the development of ideas in the human mind. Experience determines human ideas. He explains the existence of two types of experiences, the sensation and outer experience. In John Locke's perspective, the human mind constantly performs operations from reflections of ideas. He classifies human complex ideas into relations, models and substances. The idea of substances consists of independent things, the idea of modes includes dependent things and ideas of relations consist of more than one substance. Book three implies that the topic occurs from digression since language exists as a communication tool. Language determines the type of words which further result in ideas of substances and modes. Despite the significance of language, Locke claims that language leads to misunderstanding and confusion because word not natural but arbitrary. He does not provide a piece of substantial evidence for the claim of the disadvantages of language. In a logical view, the difference in ideas leads to misunderstanding and confusion rather than language. Two people may have the same language understanding but have different ideas of the meaning of words leading to unrelated interpretations. Locke states that words reflect ideas and language leads to words (Locke, 118). From this perspective, people who differ in ideas cannot speak the same language. Ideas play a major part in the choice of word which leads to communication. Locke provides remedies to the problems created by language such as using words only when one has clear and complete ideas and communicating the meaning of words to others.

Book four accounts that knowledge perceives a specific connection. It generates identical and non-identical ideas in humans. Intuitive knowledge implies a direct perception of the connection between ideas. Demonstrative knowledge opposes intuitive knowledge by stating that one cannot perceive the existence of an immediate connection between ideas. Sensitive knowledge relates to the external world to ideas. He fails to provide clear support on his claim about the three types of knowledge. For instance, according to Locke, intuitive and demonstrative knowledge exist as two opposites, this claim does not explain the incidents where these types of knowledge apply because one person cannot have both demonstrative and intuitive knowledge in one experience. The contrast between the meaning of knowledge and sensitive knowledge create confusion to the readers. His idea of sensitive knowledge brings up an argument of the right understanding. In the first perspective, sensitive knowledge relates physical objects in the world to ideas. On the other hand, having a deeper understanding of Book four implies that knowledge exists as a relation between two ideas only.

Locke shows his political philosophy through his work, The Two Treatises which give an outlay of the government. The first Treatise argues that monarchy is a rightful type of leadership. He believes that the power of kings originated from God through Adam. He considers humans as a political state of nature since the olden days lacked governments, instead, humans were governed by natural rights given by God to his people. Governments originate from natural human rights made up by citizens. Locke brings out the idea that Governments cannot exist without citizens because they work under the Citizens' demands and needs. Rulers do not have the authority to claim absolute power over all the elements in the life of a citizen. John Locke developed the theory of property rights as a way of relating the philosophies of capitalism and Christianity (Manly, 67) He aims at giving the readers the belief that God accepts unlimited capital accumulation because it relates to the nature of God's creation. He suggests that humans live in a society that consists of unequal wealth distribution because of the differed value of silver and gold. Unequal wealth distribution encourages the use of money as a medium of exchange. He, however, ignores the idea of the haves and have-nots according to the Judeo-Christian values.

As a theology philosopher, Locke argues that humans lack enough reason to believe that God communicated the Central Christianity truths to his people through Jesus. He gives credibility to Jesus as God's messenger because He performed various miracles and fulfilled various historical prophecies on the coming of the Messiah. In "The Reasonableness of Christianity" Locke implies the significance of salvation as a way to eternal life in Heaven. He supports the relationship between Christian faith, Salvation and Eternal life, a factor that contributes to the spread of Christianity in England.

Conclusion

In conclusion, John Locke's philosophies on politics, theology, education and language influence the readers to have varied beliefs about the world. His political view promotes political organizations globally, he influenced Christianity through his view on Christian faith, his hard work and education background makes him a respected individual and great influencer to learners. His philosophies in "The Essay" cover various sectors, the second book contributes to Book one's idea by stating that human ideas originate from experiences. The book cites various examples such as the relationship between infinity, space and God and the human mental perceptions. The third book focuses on language and its significance to theorizing. The fourth book includes the aspects of opinion, belief and knowledge. Locke provides an argument that knowledge entails special relations between mental ideas and human beings have a role to regulate their beliefs accordingly. "The Two Treatises" reflect the political philosophies of Locke while "The Reasonableness of Christianity" explains his work as a theologist. He provides substantial support to his claims in most of his works making him one of the recognized philosophers.

Works Cited

Anstey, Peter R. John Locke and natural philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Ashcraft, Richard. Locke's two treatises of government. Routledge, 2013.

Locke, John. A letter concerning toleration and other writings. Liberty Fund, 2012.

Manly, Susan. Language, custom and nation in the 1790s: Locke, Tooke, Wordsworth, Edgeworth. Routledge, 2017.

Thomas, David Lloyd. Routledge philosophy guidebook to Locke on government. Routledge, 2013.