Skip to main content

Locke, John

Index: Funes el memorioso, Artificios, Ficciones, OC,Obras completas. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1974. 489. El ruiseñor de Keats, Otras inquisiciones, OC,Obras completas. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1974. 718, 719. De las alegorías a las novelas, Otras inquisiciones, OC,Obras completas. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1974. 745. Nueva refutación del tiempo, Otras inquisiciones, OC,Obras completas. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1974. 758. La inmortalidad, BO,Borges, oral. Buenos Aires: Emecé/Universidad de Belgrano, 1979. 31. Los orígenes, ILN,Introducción a la literatura norteamericana. Buenos Aires: Editorial Columba, 1967. 11. Trascendentalismo, ILN,Introducción a la literatura norteamericana. Buenos Aires: Editorial Columba, 1967. 20. Juan Crisóstomo Lafinur (1797-1824), La moneda de hierro, OP,Obra poética, 1923-1977. Madrid: Alianza, 1981. 501.
Type
N

English philosopher, 1632-1704, author of two Treatises on Government, a treatise On Education and other works

Fishburn and Hughes: "An English philosopher whose influence upon modem thought rests chiefly on his Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of Government, both published in 1690. As an empiricist and anti-dogmatist, writing against the old philosophy of scholasticism, Locke examines the implications of new scientific ideas upon traditional concepts of religion and morality. The Essay is a critical assessment of the nature and purpose of understanding, claiming that, while man's understanding falls short of a total comprehension of reality, human knowledge is sufficient for the needs of mankind. Locke denies the existence of innate ideas and categories, arguing that the mind, at birth, is a tabula rasa, and that we get all our ideas from sense experience. Thus, as far as man's knowledge is concerned, general ideas are only abstractions from particular experiences. These preoccupations lead Locke to consider the nature of language and to observe its imperfections with regard to the subjective nature of its categories. Locke agreed that language is most useful when general names stand for general ideas and operations of the mind. Most of the intellectual argument of Tunes the Memorious' stems from Locke's discussion of language in book 3, ch. 1 of the Essay, in which he considers the relationship of language and things, noting that whereas 'all Things are Particulars, the far greatest part of Words that make all Languages are General Terms'. The reason for this is necessity: since it is beyond human capacity to frame and retain distinct ideas of every particular thing, it is impossible for every particular thing to have a distinct and peculiar name; secondly, it would be useless if it did because this would prevent rather than facilitate communication; thirdly, it would not serve towards the improvement of knowledge which, though founded in particular things, enlarges itself by general views." (116)