ABSTRACT
John Locke is the apostle of the Revolution of 1688, the most moderate and the most successful of all revolutions. The years before the Revolution of 1688, when Locke could not, take any part, theoretical or practical, in English politics, were spent by him in composing his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. This is his most important book, and the one upon which his fame most securely rests; but his influence on the philosophy of politics was so great and so lasting that he must be treated as the founder of philosophical liberalism as much as of empiricism in theory of knowledge. Locke's philosophy, as it appears in the Essay , has certain merits and certain demerits. Locke may be regarded as the founder of empiricism, which is the doctrine that all our knowledge (with the exception of logic and mathematics) is derived from experience. Locke's ethical doctrines are interesting, partly on their own account, partly as an anticipation of Bentham.
