ABSTRACT
How can we know that there are perceptible objects external to our minds? It has seemed obvious to many philosophers, including John Locke, that we know such objects to exist by sensory experience.1 On the other hand, it has also seemed to many philosophers that skeptical doubts pose a serious challenge to such knowledge. The canon of early modern philosophers is laden with figures such as Descartes, Berkeley, and Hume who have left substantial legacies regarding our knowledge of the external world. In stark contrast to the legacies of these early modern figures, John Locke is commonly taken to have offered among the worst accounts of knowledge of the existence of the external world in the whole history of philosophy.
