#13577
Mentioned in 5 episodes

Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Book • 1689
Published in 1689, 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding' is a comprehensive work that challenges the notion of innate knowledge.

Locke argues that all knowledge is derived from experience and reflection, and he divides experience into two categories: sensation (information from the external world) and reflection (the mind's operations on those sensations).

The essay is structured into four books, addressing topics such as the rejection of innate ideas, the theory of ideas, the role of language, personal identity, and the limits and nature of human knowledge.

Locke's work had a significant influence on modern Western philosophy and continues to be a cornerstone in discussions of epistemology and the philosophy of mind.

Mentioned by

Mentioned in 5 episodes

Mentioned by David French as one of the Enlightenment philosophers on Jefferson's reading list.
48 snips
The Hallway Interviews
Mentioned by Jeffrey Rosen as part of Thomas Jefferson's reading list on moral philosophy.
“The Pursuit of Happiness” | Jeffrey Rosen | January 2025
Mentioned by Benjamin Franklin as a book he read around the same time as Seller and Chemie's book of navigation.
Chapter 2 Beginning Life as a Printer of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Mentioned by Andrew Sullivan in a discussion about Locke's essay on toleration and the use of Christian arguments to support toleration.
Andrew Sullivan on The Classics, Independence, and the Human Experience
Mentioned by Peter Millican when discussing the influence of John Locke on 18th-century philosophy.
2.4 John Locke
Mentioned by Linda Zagzebski alongside Descartes as influential figures in early modern philosophy.
Ep. 204 - The Two Greatest Philosophical Ideas!! w/Dr. Linda Zagzebski

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