ABSTRACT

John Locke is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. He postulated in his first book on An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that there are no innate ideas that form our understanding of the world. In Book II he states that the mind is a “blank slate” or “tabula rasa;” that is, contrary to Cartesian or Christian philosophy, Locke maintained that people are born without innate ideas. In Book III he states that language is a key element in forming and codifying understandings, and that we need to share common meanings to make knowledge sharing feasible. Locke recognizes that ordinary people are the chief makers of language and that scientists have the task of checking if the connections made between properties in reality made in this language are actually true (or not). In Book IV Locke states that man should try to use reason, i.e. a combination of observation, experience, and rationality in finding truth. But, man has limitations in reasoning, simply because many issues are so complex that people lack sufficient experiences, observations, and valid theories, for the time being, and in such cases it is reasonable to believe, i.e. reason by faith through a communication with God and traditional revelation. So revelation comes in where reason cannot reach. Locke also identifies so-called “enthusiasts,” i.e. “those who would abandon reason and claim to know on the basis of faith alone” (Uzgalis, 2007, p. 25). Locke regrets this attitude, which explains why he was not always very popular among representatives of the church, but contributed substantially to new ideas in his time.