Реферат: Natural Law Essay Research Paper Natural Law

Fourth Letter for Toleration

An Examination of Father Malebranche’s Opinion of Seeing All Things in God

Remarks on Some of Mr Norris’s Books

Conduct of the Understanding

Locke’s greatest philosophical contribution is his Essay Concerning Human

Understanding. In the winter of 1670, five or six friends were talking in his room,

probably in London. The topic was the “principles of morality and revealed

religion,” but arguments arose and no real progress or serious discussion took

place. Then, he goes on to say, “it came into my thoughts that we took a wrong

course, and that before we set ourselves upon inquiries of that nature, it was

necessary to examine our own abilities, and see what objects our understandings

were, or were not, fitted to deal with.” At the request of his friends, Locke

agreed to write down his thoughts on this question at their next meeting, and he

expected that a single sheet of paper would suffice for the purpose. Little did he

realize the importance of the issue which he raised, and that it would take up his

free time for nearly twenty years. The Essay is divided into four books; the first

is a debate against the doctrine of innate principles and ideas of that time. The

second deals with ideas, the third with words, and the fourth with knowledge.

Locke’s ideas center on traditional philosophical topics: the nature of the

self, the world, God, and the grounds of our knowledge of them. He addresses

these questions at the end of his Essay. The first three sections are an

introduction, and Locke saw that they had an importance of their own. His

opening statements make this plain:

Since it is the understanding that sets man above the rest of sensible beings,

and gives him all the advantage and dominion which he has over them; it is

certainly a subject, even for its nobleness, worth our labour to inquire into. The

understanding, like the eye, while it makes us see and perceive all other things,

takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and

make it its own object. But whatever be the difficulties that lie in the way of this