Description
John Locke (1632-1704) was the first philosopher of the scientific and industrial world. In AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, first published in 1689, he freed philosophy from the metaphysics of medieval theology and formulated the methods and essential questions of mod- ern epistemology. The influence of Locke's ideas-and of the ESSAY in particular-has continued down to the present day through British empiricism, American pragmatism, and logical positivism.
This abridgement of the ESSAY by the noted Locke scholar, Maurice Cranston, is based on the "authorized abridgement" of John Wynne (1696), but restores many of the cuts of that edition and is, indeed, more than twice as long. The editor has omitted many of the repetitions, of which Locke himself was critical, as well as the Baroque ornaments of Locke's style and his prolonged illustrations and digressions. Where mere cuts would entail too abrupt a transition, a linking commentary or a summary of Locke's thought is given. The introduction analyzes Locke's life, times, the sources of his ideas, and the wide-ranging effects of the ESSAY ON subsequent generations of philosophers, historians, and political theorists. The result is a superior and authoritative edition of one of the classic texts in the history of thought.
