An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1

by John Locke

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About this book

John Locke begins his inquiry into the mind by challenging the claim that principles and ideas are present from birth. This first volume gathers the discussion of innate principles and the extended account of ideas that follows it. Its chapters address sensation, reflection, perception and memory before considering more complex notions such as identity, cause and effect, space and time.

The treatment of infinity shows how closely Locke works through an argument. Repeating an imagined length allows the mind to conceive space without a final boundary; repeating a duration leads to the idea of eternity. He distinguishes forming such an idea from proving that something corresponding to it actually exists. For readers studying the foundations of knowledge, the volume offers sustained attention to how concepts develop, with an opening address that encourages independent judgment rather than accepting other people's opinions on trust.

About the author

John Locke

The Two Treatises of Government appeared anonymously in 1689, and Locke denied authorship until his will. The first demolishes Robert Filmer's claim that kings inherit their authority from Adam; the second builds government on consent instead, on natural rights to life, liberty and property, and on the right of a people to remove a ruler who breaks the trust...