John Locke (1632-1704)

John Locke is one of the most important figures in British empiricism and one of the main authors in early modern philosophy. Considered by many as the father of liberalism, his philosophical contribution spans across all branches, from philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics to political philosophy. His most influential and representative work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding was first printed in 1690. The ideas there contained had a major influence on authors such as Hume, Kant, and Mill. Locke was also a physician and an important figure in the British political history of seventeenth century, culminating in the Revolution of 1688.

Locke was born in 1632 in the village of Wrington, North Somerset. His parents were Puritans and his father was a country lawyer, which gave the family a relatively modest income. Locke was fortunate enough, however, to enroll in Westminster School in London in 1647, thanks to the intervention of his father’s commander. It was the beginning of a brilliant career. Westeminster School was feeding into the most highly selective British colleges, Christ Church in Oxford and Trinity College in Cambridge. In the autumn of 1652, Locke went to Christ Church, where he studied philosophy of classics. He graduated in 1656 and decided to pursue his studies further: by 1660 he was already a Lecturer in Greek and by 1663 in Rhetoric.

Among Locke’s colleagues and mentors in Oxford, one exercised a special influence on his philosophical views, Robert Boyle. A leading scientist, Boyle had at the time articulated his variant of atomism, which is employed also to formulate his law of gasses, linking their temperature, pressure, and volume. Locke’s theoretical philosophy owes much to Boyle. For instance, it is borrowed from the scientist the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, according to which each substance has some qualities (e.g. temperature, mass, or volume) which are independent from subjective experience, while other qualities depend on the subject (e.g. color, smell, taste); in other words, substances in themselves are thoroughly different form the way we experience them, as we add secondary qualities, which substances do not have on their own.

Locke was also a contemporaneous of Isaac Newton, whose work he closely studied. The two became friends after 1688. But, most important to Locke’s career and intellectual trajectory was Lord Shaftesbury, one of the wealthiest men in England at the time. The two fortuitously met in Oxford in 1666 and a few months later Locke was already employed in London as his only physician. The new employment gave Locke the opportunity of discussing his ideas with the most influential political and academic figures of the time. During the years of political turmoil that preceded the revolution of 1688, Locke took quarters in France and Holland, returning to England after the change of government. It was during the exile that he finished his masterpiece, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, published upon his return to England in 1690.

In the latter part of his life, Locke was much involved with British affairs in America, including writing the Constitution of the Carolinas. Locke’s political views were of great importance in shaping life in the new continent. He was one of the foremost and most important advocates of liberalism; one of the conditions for a liberal society was also freedom of religion, an aspect of the American life that much will characterize its history and success.

"John Locke" at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Portraits of John Locke at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

"John Locke" at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.