An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Notebook

John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) is the founding text of British empiricism and one of the most influential works of modern philosophy. Against the doctrine of innate ideas, Locke argues that the mind begins as a 'white paper' and that all our knowledge is ultimately derived from experience, whether sensation or reflection. Across its four books it examines the origin of ideas, the nature and limits of human knowledge, the workings of language, and the grounds of probability and belief, shaping the Enlightenment and the thought of Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.

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