Great as were Loeke's services to his coun try, and to the cause of civil and religious liberty, his fame rests on the Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, which marks an epoch in the his tory of philosophy. llis purpose was to inquire into the powers of the human understanding, with a view to find out what things it was fitted to grapple with, and where it must fail, so as to make the mind of man "more cautious in med dling with things exceeding its comprehension, and disposed to stop when it is at the utmost extent of its tether." Ile institutes a pre liminary inquiry in the first book as to the exist ence of innate ideas, theoretical and practical, on which the philosophical world has been much divided. (See COMMON SENSE, PHILOSOPHY or. ) Locke urges against the existence of these supposed innate conceptions or intuitions of the mind the fact that there is no truth uni versally accepted by mankind. Having thus repudiated the intuitive sources of our knowl edge or ideas, lie is bound to show how we come by them in the course of our experience. Our experience being twofold, external and internal, we have two classes of ideas—those of sensa tion and those of reflection. He has, therefore, to trace the recognized conceptions of the mind to one or other of these sources. Many of our notions are obviously derived from experience, as colors, sounds, etc.; but some have been dis puted, more especially ideas of space, time, in finity, power, substance, cause, moral good and evil; and Locke discusses these at length, by way of tracing them to the same origin. This is the subject of book ii., entitled "Of ideas." Book iii. is on language considered as an instrument of truth, and contains much valuable material. Book iv. is on the nature, limits, and reality of our knowledge, including the natnre of demon strative truth, the existence of God, the prov inces of faith and reason, and the nature of error.
in his views on government, Locke was a dis ciple of Hobbes, but he was not slavish in his discipleship. He believed with Hobbes that government is the result of an original contract. but the state of nature preceding the establish ment of government he did not believe to be a state of war. Right existed before the founda tion of society. Society is a means to the better enjoyment of natural rights; Locke distinguishes in government the three functions of legislation, execution, and adjudieation. Of these the legis lative function is supreme. but even over this stands the sovereign will of the people. When the people enforce their will against the govern ment, there is no rebellion. They are acting within their rights. In ethics he was a Good and had are equivalent to pleasure and pain or their causes. Moral good is accordance with the law imposed by an authority which re wards us with pleasure for obedience and punishes us with pain for disobedience. law-imposing authority may be divine or human.
Locke's collected works have often been pub lished from 1714 on. A convenient edition of his philosophical works is Saint John's, London, 1854, followed by many subsequent issues. The best edition of the Essay is Eraser's 1894). For biography, see King, The Life of John Lock, ( London, 1829) ; Fox Bourne, The Life of John Locke ( London and New York, 1876) ; Fowler, John Locke (London, 1880 1 ; A. ('. Eraser, Loch-, (Edinburgh, IS90). The last two works give also popular accounts of his philosophy. For a fuller bibliography, ace Veberwegib•uzA., Grand riss dcr Geschichte der (Sth ed., Ber lin, 1896). A convenient compendium of Locke's philosophical views is found in Itussell, The Philosophy of Locke (New York, 1891).