“Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas.”
John Locke · Empiricism
knowledgemind
Well attested
Philosopher
Last reviewed:
John Locke
1632–1704 · Empiricism · Early modern
John Locke, born in 1632, died in 1704, wrote the two books that still organise his reputation. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1689, attacks innate ideas and asks the reader to suppose the mind white paper, furnished by sensation and reflection. The Second Treatise of Government, published the same year, grounds political power in a trust to protect life, health, liberty, and possessions, and it argues that each person has a property in their own person which nobody else has a right to.
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Labour extends that property, within limits about spoilage and leaving enough. He was a physician, an adviser, and an exile in the Dutch years. He is an empiricist about ideas and a rights theorist about politics, and the two projects are linked by his distrust of authority that cannot say where a claim came from.
The English is his. A few entries in this library trim a theological clause or modernise nothing essential. He is not a behaviourist, and the blank paper is not a claim that infants have no nature.
Start here
Essay, book 2, chapter 1, and the Second Treatise, chapter 2 and chapter 5
Those pages are the blank paper and the property argument in his own English, including the limits the slogans drop.
Quotations
“No one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”
John Locke · Empiricism
justicefreedomethics
Well attested
“Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself.”
John Locke · Empiricism
justicefreedomself
Well attested
“The care of souls is not committed to the civil magistrate, any more than to other men.”
John Locke · Empiricism
freedomsocietyknowledge
Paraphrase or translation
“To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider what state all men are naturally in, and that is a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.”
John Locke · Empiricism
freedompowersociety
Well attested
Key ideas
White paper
The mind begins without innate ideas, and experience, as sensation and reflection, furnishes the materials of thought.
The harm limit
No one ought to harm another in life, health, liberty, or possessions, and liberty that does so is licence.
Property in the person
Each person has a property in their own body and labour, from which ownership of goods is argued, with limits.
Major works
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)
Book 1 attacks innate principles. Book 2 begins from the white paper.
Second Treatise of Government (1689)
Consent, property, and resistance. Sections 4 to 6 and 27 are the usual doors.
A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
The case for separating civil power from the care of souls.
Influences
Influenced
Common misreadings
- White paper means infants have no nature and no needs.
- Property in one's person is a complete ban on tax or on any collective claim.
Famous lines John Locke never said
None of the lines this library files for John Locke is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
Essay, book 2, chapter 1, and the Second Treatise, chapter 2 and chapter 5 Those pages are the blank paper and the property argument in his own English, including the limits the slogans drop.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for John Locke that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas.” (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding II.1.2, Well attested).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for John Locke is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
White paper: The mind begins without innate ideas, and experience, as sensation and reflection, furnishes the materials of thought.