Locke, John 1632-1704
English empiricist philosopher

He was born in Wrington, Somerset, and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He reacted against the prevailing scholasticism at Oxford and involved himself instead in experimental studies of medicine and science, making the acquaintance of Robert Boyle, John Wilkins and others. In 1667 he joined the household of Anthony Ashley Cooper, later 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, as his personal physician and became his adviser in scientific and political matters generally. Through Ashley he made contact with the leading intellectual figures in London and was elected FRS (1668). When Ashley became Earl of Shaftesbury and Chancellor (1672), Locke became secretary to the Council of Trade and Plantations, but retired to France (1675-79), partly for health reasons and perhaps partly from political prudence. In Paris he became acquainted with the circle of Pierre Gassendi and Antoine Arnauld. After Shaftesbury's fall and death in 1683, Locke felt threatened and fled to the Netherlands, where he joined the English supporters of William of Orange (the future William III) and remained until after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Two Treatises of Government published, anonymously, in 1690, constitute his reply to the patriarchal, Divine Right theory of Sir Robert Filmer and also to the absolutism of Thomas Hobbes. The Treatises present a social contract theory which embodies a defence of natural rights and a justification for constitutional law, the liberty of the individual and the rule of the majority. If the ruling body offends against natural law it must be deposed, and this sanctioning of rebellion had a powerful influence on the American and the French revolutions. Locke returned to England in 1689, declined an ambassadorship and became Commissioner of Appeals until 1704. His health declined and he spent his remaining years at Oates, Essex, at the home of Sir Francis and Lady Masham (the daughter of Ralph Cudworth). Locke's major philosophical work was the Essay concerning Human Understanding, published in 1690 though developed over 20 years. The Essay is a systematic enquiry into the nature and scope of human reason, very much reflecting the scientific temper of the times in seeking to establish that 'all knowledge is founded on and ultimately derives from sense?or sensation'. The work is regarded as the first and probably the most important statement of an empiricist theory of knowledge in the British tradition which led from Locke to George Berkeley and David Hume. His other main works were A Letter concerning Toleration (1689), Some Thoughts concerning Education (1693) and The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), and they are all characterized by the same tolerance, moderation and common sense.

Bibliography: Richard I Aaron, John Locke (3rd edn, 1951)