Abstract

Locke’s hermeneutics is not a particular instance of the general method exposed in the Essay concerning Human Understanding; such a deductive process would be contradictory to Locke’s very method. The Essay does not elaborate a general method applied afterwards in various fields, but analyses existing sciences and beliefs in order to improve them: it is a critique of previous learning more than a Discours de la Méthode. In order to be coherent with the epistemology of the Essay, it is necessary to start anew with every field of learning, considering its singularity and trying to correct wrong conceptions.