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An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2

by John Locke (1632–1704)

  • Free to read
  • 8 hours to read
  • 32 chapters
  • Reading level: 10th to 12th grade

"An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2" by John Locke is a philosophical work first published in 1689. This foundational text of empiricism argues that the mind begins as a blank slate, filled through experience rather than innate ideas. Locke examines how we acquire knowledge through sensation and reflection, distinguishes between primary and secondary qualities of objects, and explores personal identity, language, and the nature of understanding itself.

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  • Knowledge, Theory of · Early works to 1800

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Chapter I

OF WORDS

OF WORDS OR LANGUAGE IN GENERAL.

1. Man fitted to form articulated Sounds.

God, having designed man for a sociable creature, made him not only with an inclination, and under a necessity to have fellowship with those of his own kind, but furnished him also with language, which was to be the great instrument and common tie of society. Man, therefore, had by nature his organs so fashioned, as to be fit to frame articulate sounds, which we call words. But this was not enough to produce language; for parrots, and several other birds, will be taught to make articulate sounds distinct enough, which yet by no means are capable of language.

2. To use these sounds as Signs of Ideas.

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Contents

Show all 32 chapters
  1. Book III
  2. Chapter I
  3. Chapter II
  4. Chapter III
  5. Chapter IV
  6. Chapter V
  7. Chapter VI
  8. Chapter VII
  9. Chapter VIII
  10. Chapter IX
  11. Chapter X
  12. Chapter XI: Of the Remedies of the Foregoing Imperfections and Abuses of Words
  13. Book IV
  14. Book IV
  15. Chapter I
  16. Chapter II
  17. Chapter III
  18. Chapter IV: Of the Reality of Knowledge
  19. Chapter V: Of Truth in General
  20. Chapter VI: Of Universal Propositions: Their Truth and Certainty
  21. Chapter VII: Of Maxims
  22. Chapter VIII: Of Trifling Propositions
  23. Chapter IX: Of Our Threefold Knowledge of Existence
  24. Chapter X: Of Our Knowledge of the Existence of a God
  25. Chapter XI
  26. Chapter XII: Of the Improvement of Our Knowledge
  27. Chapter XIII
  28. Chapter XIV: Of Judgment
  29. Chapter XV: Of Probability
  30. Chapter XVI: Of the Degrees of Assent
  31. Chapter XVII: Of Reason
  32. Chapter XVIII
  33. Chapter XX
  34. Chapter XXI

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About this edition

This free edition of An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 by John Locke comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #10616, released 2004-01-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Language & Communication, Philosophy & Ethics.

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