‘Locke: A Very Short Introduction’ by John Dunn is a short commentary on life, political thought and philosophy of John Locke.
Contents of each chapters are below.
First, in chapter 1, John Dunn introduces the life of Locke briefly with the process of his thought, the scientific situation in Europe and the political affairs in Britain. Three large movement affects thought of Locke. The first movement is he was familiar with Christianity. The second is career of the administration and finance. The third is the commitment to philosophical understanding, which made Locke to consider philosophical question of political authority and toleration, of ethics and the theory of knowledge.
In chapter 2, author comments political thought of Locke. Locke’s central conception of government is the idea of trust. Human beings can deserve each other’s trust, they help to hold together the community. Men are so aware of their need to trust one another and because they sense the aid which this concentrated power to execute the law of nature can offer to their lives.
And, in chapter 3, author summarized Locke’s philosophy of knowledge or epistemology. In the ‘Essay Concerning Human Understanding’, Locke attempted to show how men can use their minds to know what they need to know and to believe only what they ought to believe. Human beings are free, they must think and judge for themselves. Reason must be their last judge and guide in everything. Moral ideas were inventions of the human mind, not copies of nature. This contrast is the foundation in modern philosophical thinking of the presumption of a stark gap between facts about the world and values for human beings. The distinction between fact and value is both a product of Locke’s conception of human knowing and the subversion of his beliefs about human values.
Then, in ‘conclusion’, author concludes ‘for Locke the central truths about how men have good reason to live are just as independent of what at a particular time they happen consciously to desire’.
I think this book is not a introduction to John Locke and his philosophy, is a intermediate commentary on them. You must have some degree of preliminary knowledge of history, Christianity, political thought, history of philosophy and philosophy of John Locke. Comments of this book is entirely tough and unclear, and devote many pages to write background and surroundings of his philosophy. But this book helps you to develop a deep comprehension to Locke’s philosophy as second or third commentary.
The most valuable fruits I obtained by this book are I can grasp how Locke illustrated his system of epistemology, and understand Locke was a positive, optimistic, practical and religious thinker, he was not a negative, skeptical and Atheist thinker like David Hume.
Locke (Very Short Introductions)
John Dunn
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 31 July 2003
136 pages £7.99 $11.95
ISBN: 978-0192803948
Contents:
Abbreviations
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
1. Life
2. The Politics of Trust
3. Knowledge, Belief, and Faith
Conclusion
References
Further Reading
Index
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