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Summary John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher best known for his empiricism (the denial of innate ideas or principles) and his attempt to reconcile the science of his day with our pre-theoretical conception of the world. His conception of the workings of the human mind provided an important basis for the discipline of psychology. A theme that makes itself felt throughout his work is epistemic humility: on Locke’s view, human knowledge is severely limited and hence dogmatism is to be resisted.
Key works Locke’s An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1689) is the major source for his metaphysics and epistemology. The best scholarly edition of this work is Peter Nidditch 1689, the first entry in Oxford’s new edition of Locke’s works, which, when complete, will displace the earlier unknown 1823 edition of the works, which is still consulted today. Locke’s contributions to political philosophy include the influential Letter on Toleration (1689, Locke 1937) and Two Treatises of Government (1690, Locke 1947).
Introductions For overviews of Locke's thought, see Jolley 1999 and Lowe 1993. Ayers 1991 covers Locke’s epistemology and metaphysics. Rogers 1994 a useful collection of articles. The standard biography of Locke is Woolhouse 2007.
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  1. Christ Church, Oxford, Anglican Moral Theology, and the Reception of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding, c. 1690–1725.Jacob Donald Chatterjee - 2023 - History of Universities 36 (2):98-136.
    This article demonstrates that numerous high church clergymen at Christ Church, Oxford, engaged positively with John Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding (1689). They indicated their approval of his philosophy by securing copies of his writings for personal and college libraries, corresponding with him, teaching the Essay to students, and, most importantly, publishing several reworkings of his thought. The ways in which these Christ Church men reinterpreted the Essay, moreover, influenced how Locke’s moral theology was read later in the eighteenth century (...)
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  2. ‘Celestial Epicurisme’: John Locke and the Anglican Language of Pleasure, 1650–1697.Jacob Donald Chatterjee - 2022 - The Seventeenth Century 37 (2):303-334.
    This article presents a new understanding of how Anglican clergymen and writers remoulded common notions of the moral status of pleasure during the latter half of the seventeenth century. It addresses the current historiographical neglect of the philosophical content of ethical thought within the Church of England. For Anglican thinkers developed innovative moral arguments about the rational order of human satisfactions in order to direct the disruptive appetites towards good ends. This article illustrates the conceptual trajectory of this ethical discourse (...)
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  3. ‘Celestial Epicurisme’: John Locke and the Anglican Language of Pleasure, 1650–1697.Jacob Donald Chatterjee - 2022 - The Seventeenth Century 37 (2):303-334.
    This article presents a new understanding of how Anglican clergymen and writers remoulded common notions of the moral status of pleasure during the latter half of the seventeenth century. It addresses the current historiographical neglect of the philosophical content of ethical thought within the Church of England. For Anglican thinkers developed innovative moral arguments about the rational order of human satisfactions in order to direct the disruptive appetites towards good ends. This article illustrates the conceptual trajectory of this ethical discourse (...)
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  4. Materialism from Hobbes to Locke, written by Duncan, Stewart.Charles Wolfe - forthcoming - Hobbes Studies:1-6.
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  5. Some Nineteenth-Century Additions to Christophersen.G. Kemerling - 1994 - Locke Studies 25.
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  6. LOCKE, D. - "Myself and Others: a Study in our Knowledge of Minds". [REVIEW]B. Gibbs - 1969 - Mind 78:632.
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  7. LOCKE, Don: Myself and Others.Alec Hyslop - 1969 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 47:385.
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  8. A Reply to Don Locke.F. Jackson - 1975 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 53:68.
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  9. LOCKE, DON-"Memory". [REVIEW]A. J. Holland - 1972 - Philosophy 47:285.
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  10. Language and Statecraft in Early Modern Venice. [REVIEW]Michael Knapton - 2009 - The Medieval Review 2.
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  11. Locke jakiego nie znamy.Zbigniew Ogonowski - 1970 - Człowiek I Światopogląd 1 (5):45-59.
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  12. Przypkowski i Locke wobec problemu tolerancji.Zbigniew Ogonowski - 1989 - Archiwum Historii Filozofii I Myśli Społecznej 34.
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  13. Polonica w bibliotece Locke'a.Zbigniew Ogonowski - 1972 - Archiwum Historii Filozofii I Myśli Społecznej 18.
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  14. Phil 5120 / 6120 - modern & recent Philosophy.Lex Newman - manuscript
    An Essay concerning Human Understanding , by John Locke ISBN: 0198245955. This is the standard scholarly edition of Locke's Essay published by Oxford and edited by Peter Nidditch. This version contains countless aids for the scholar and student and is the version of the..
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Locke: Metaphysics
  1. Modality and Essence in Early Modern Philosophy.Anat Schechtman - 2024 - In Yitzhak Melamed & Samuel Newlands (eds.), Modality: A History. pp. 61-84.
    This essay defends two theses regarding the explanation, or ground, of modality in the early modern period. First, for philosophers in the period, essences ground a range of important modal facts. Second, as the period progresses, we witness increased skepticism about certain modal facts, due to a growing skepticism about the scope or existence of essences. These theses are supported by examination of three case studies: Descartes’ treatment of substance and mode (which forms the core of his ontology); Malebranche’s treatment (...)
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  2. Stewart Duncan, "Materialism from Hobbes to Locke.".Geoffrey Gorham - 2024 - Philosophy in Review 44 (1):18-21.
  3. Identidade pessoal e mortalidade humana: Hobbes, Locke, Leibniz.Luc Foisneau - 2023 - Dois Pontos 20 (3).
    Ao refletir sobre o problema da identidade pessoal, Leibniz dialoga diretamente com Locke, a quem procura demonstrar que a consciência, concebida à maneira cartesiana, não é o único critério de identidade da pessoa humana. Nesse diálogo, Hobbes desempenha um papel essencial, que é triplo: primeiramente, na medida em que contribui, graças à sua teoria da pessoa natural, para distinguir o problema metafísico da individuação da substância e o problema moral da identidade da pessoa; depois, na medida em que coloca em (...)
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  4. Vi Locke, Butler and the Stream of Consciousness: And Men as Natural Kind.David Wiggins - 1976 - In Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (ed.), Identities of Persons. University of California Press. pp. 139-174.
  5. Existence, meaning, and reality in Locke's Essay and in present epistemology.Addison Webster Moore - 1903 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain (...)
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  6. What is (the) Matter – Locke, Leibniz, and the Controversy that Could not Take Place.Idan Shimony - 2011 - In Herbert Berger, Jürgen Herbst & Sven Erdner (eds.), Natur und Subjekt, IX. Internationaler Leibniz-Kongress. Hanover: Gottfried-Wilhem-Leibniz-Gesellschaft. pp. Vol. 3, 1070-1079.
  7. John Locke and the Nominalist Tradition.John R. Milton - 1980 - In Reinhard Brandt (ed.), John Locke: symposium, Wolfenbüttel, 1979. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 128-145.
  8. Wholly Useless and Unserviceable to Knowledge.David Wörner - 2023 - Locke Studies 23:1-29.
    In this paper I examine Locke’s criticism of the view that some species of natural objects are determined by real essences, a view I call species realism. Most commentators have focused either on Locke’s putative objections to the realist’s claim that species determining real essences exist or on his semantic case against the assumption that our species terms can refer to real essences that determine species. I identify another objection, which, I argue, is independent from both of these lines of (...)
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  9. Reseña. Carmen Silva. De la filosofía natural a la psicología de la moral en el Ensayo de John Locke. [REVIEW]Alberto Luis López - 2022 - Areté. Revista de Filosofía 34:554-560.
    Reseña/Review of the book: Carmen Silva. "De la filosofía natural a la psicología de la moral en el Ensayo sobre el entendimiento humano de John Locke". Ciudad de México: Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México–Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, 2021, 231pp.
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  10. Hume contra Aristóteles, Locke y Leibniz sobre la causalidad.Silvio Mota Pinto - 2020 - Tópicos: Revista de Filosofía 59:367-396.
    Aristotle’s conception of causality and the ones Modern philosophers have bequeathed us have been exhaustively discussed, although the contrast between them has not, in my opinion, been sufficiently highlighted. This paper proposes to fill this gap. I start with Aristotelian causality and his theses that causal explanation requires knowledge of causal laws and that the necessity associated with these laws presupposes the existence of causal powers. I discuss next Locke’s and Leibniz’s attempts to modernize Aristotle’s theses on causality. The third (...)
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  11. Modes and composite material things according to Descartes and Locke.Martha Brandt Bolton - 2018 - In Philippe Hamou & Martine Pécharman (eds.), Locke and Cartesian Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
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  12. Are body and extension the same thing? : Locke versus Descartes (versus More).Lisa Downing - 2018 - In Philippe Hamou & Martine Pécharman (eds.), Locke and Cartesian Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
  13. The Cartesian element in Locke's anti-Cartesian conception of body.James Hill - 2018 - In Philippe Hamou & Martine Pécharman (eds.), Locke and Cartesian Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
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  14. Locke on Cartesian bodies and Cartesian souls.Philippe Hamou - 2019 - In Steven Nadler, Tad M. Schmaltz & Delphine Antoine-Mahut (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Descartes and Cartesianism. Oxford University Press.
  15. Sobre el “triángulo general” de Locke, de Evert Willem Berth.Javier Fuentes - 2021 - Con-Textos Kantianos 14:107-134.
    Sobre el “triángulo general” de Locke, de Evert Willem Berth.
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  16. The Foundations of Knowledge and the Logic of Substance: The Structure of Locke's General Philosophy.Michael R. Ayers - 1998 - In Vere Chappell (ed.), Locke. Oxford University Press.
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  17. Locke on Space, Time, and God.Geoffrey Gorham - 2020 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 7.
    Locke is famed for his caution in speculative matters: “Men, extending their enquiries beyond their capacities and letting their thoughts wander into those depths where they can find no sure footing; ‘tis no wonder that they raise questions and multiply disputes”. And he is skeptical about the pretensions of natural philosophy, which he says is “not capable of being made a science”. And yet Locke is confident that “Our reason leads us to the knowledge of this certain and evident truth, (...)
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  18. An Analytical Study on John Locke's View of Nature. 김일방 - 2017 - Environmental Philosophy 24:155-182.
  19. Locke and Cartesian cosmology.Peter R. Anstey - 2018 - In Philippe Hamou & Martine Pécharman (eds.), Locke and Cartesian Philosophy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 33–48.
    This chapter examines John Locke's interest in and views on the Cartesian vortex theory.
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  20. Locke's Last Word on Freedom: Correspondence with Limborch.Julie Walsh - 2018 - Res Philosophica 95 (4):637-661.
    JohnLocke’s 1700–1702 correspondencewith Dutch Arminian Philippus van Limborch has been taken by commentators as the motivation for modifications to the fifth edition of “Of Power,” the chapter in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that treats freedom. In this paper, I offer the first systematic and chronological study of their correspondence. I argue that the heart of their disagreement is over how they define “freedom of indifference.” Once the importance of the disagreement over indifference is established, it is clear that when (...)
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  21. John Smith on the Immortality of the Soul.Derek A. Michaud - 2019 - In Plotinus' Legacy: The Transformation of Platonism from the Renaissance to the Modern Era. Cambridge University Press. pp. 160-179.
  22. Das Verhältnis John Locke's zur Scholastik. Tellkamp - 1930 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 37 (4):13-13.
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  23. John Locke-Theoretische Philosophie.Wolfgang Schwarz - 1954 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 14 (3):432-433.
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  24. Stillingfleet and Locke on Substance, Essence, and Articles of Faith. E. Kort - 2005 - Locke Studies 5:149-178.
  25. The Possibility of Real Species in Locke: A Reply to Goodin.Pauline Phemister - 1997 - Locke Studies 28:77-86.
  26. Locke's View of Essence and its Relation to Racism: A Reply to Professor Bracken.K. Squadrito - 1994 - Locke Studies 25.
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  27. Locke on the Names of Substances.J. Troyer - 1994 - Locke Studies 25.
  28. John Locke, Theoretische Philosophie.Alfred Klemmt - 1952 - A. Hain.
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  29. A Useful Anachronism: John Locke, the corpuscular philosophy, and inference to the best explanation.Selman Halabi - 2005 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 36 (2):241-259.
    Locke is often interpreted as having attempted to build a foundation for knowledge based on ideas. However, textual evidence shows that the corpuscular philosophy is also a fundamental part of that foundation. Somewhat anachronistically, but also very usefully, Locke can be described as inferring corpuscularianism by an inference to the best explanation. Locke felt justified in believing that the corpuscular philosophy was the correct description of the world because it provided us with a better explanation of a wider variety of (...)
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  30. Wahrheitsbegriffe von Descartes bis Kant.Michael Albrecht - 2006 - In Jan Szaif & Markus Enders (eds.), Die Geschichte des Philosophischen Begriffs der Wahrheit. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 231--250.
  31. Locke on Power and Causation.Ruth Mattern - 1981 - Philosophy Research Archives 7:835-995.
    Ten chapters of Locke's 1685 draft are given here, with an introduction, an index of correlating passages in the Essay and the draft, and an interpretive essay, "Locke on Active Power and the Idea of Active Power from Bodies." The passages discuss various aspects of Locke's views on power and causation, including his distinction between active and passive powers, the relation between active power and minds, passive power and bodies, the origin of the idea of power, the definition of qualities (...)
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  32. Locke on Personal Identity.Jane Lipsky McIntyre - 1977 - Philosophy Research Archives 3:113-144.
    In this paper I offer an analysis, reconstruction and defense of Locke's account of personal identity. I begin with a detailed analysis of Locke's use of the term 'conscious' in its historical context. This term, which plays a central role in Locke's theory, had senses in the seventeenth century which it does not have today. In the light of this analysis, an interpretation of continuity of consciousness as the ancestral of memory is given. It is argued that this interpretation of (...)
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  33. Critical study of Locke's account of personal identity.W. F. M. Stewart - unknown
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  34. Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles: Locke and Boyle on the External World.Paul Hoffman & Peter Alexander - 1987 - Philosophical Review 96 (4):603.
  35. Primary Philosophy.Gilbert Harman - 1968 - Philosophical Review 77 (3):383.
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  36. Primary and Secondary Reflection: The Existential Fulcrum.Gabriel Marcel & Emin Çelebi - 2015 - Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy 5 (2).
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