ABSTRACT

John Locke (1632–1704) was an English physician and Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He became famous as the author of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) and Two Treatises of Government (1690), and henceforth was regarded as a ‘philosopher’ and the reputed founder of English ‘empiricism,’ a term he never used. In this chapter, I suggest that by recognising that Locke was not only a philosopher, but also a physician, traveller and scientific virtuoso, we may deepen our understanding of his attitude to sound, in these ways – as one of the five senses; as a negative presence, in ‘noise’; and as the medium of civil conversation.