John Locke

Locke, John (1632-1704), English philosopher. John Locke was born into a family of small landowners. He graduated from Westminster School and Oxford University, where he later taught. In 1668 he was elected to the Royal Society of London, and a year earlier he became a family doctor, and then the personal secretary of Lord Ashley (Earl of Shaftesbury), thanks to which he joined an active political life.

Locke's interests, in addition to philosophy, manifested themselves in medicine, experimental chemistry and meteorology. In 1683, he was forced to emigrate to Holland, where he became close to the circle of William of Orange and, after his proclamation as King of England in 1689, returned to his homeland.

The theory of knowledge is central to Locke. He criticizes Cartesianism and university scholastic philosophy. He presented his main views in this area in the work "Experiments on the Human Mind". In it, he denies the existence of "innate ideas", and recognizes only external experience, which is made up of sensations, and internal, which is formed through reflection, as the source for all knowledge. This is the famous "blank slate" teaching, tabula rasa.

The foundation of knowledge is made up of simple ideas, excited in the mind by the primary qualities of bodies (extension, density, movement) and secondary ones (color, sound, smell). From the combination, comparison and abstraction of simple ideas, complex ideas (modes, substances, relations) are formed. The criterion for the truth of ideas is their clarity and distinctness. Knowledge itself is divided into intuitive, demonstrative and sensitive.

Locke considers the state as the result of mutual agreement, but highlights not so much legal as moral criteria of people's behavior, understanding as the main condition for a prosperous state "the power of morality and morality". According to Locke, moral standards are the foundation on which human relationships are built. This is facilitated by the fact that the natural inclinations of people are directed precisely in the direction of good.

Locke's socio-political views are expressed in "Two treatises on state government", the first of which is devoted to criticism of the divine foundation of absolute royal power, and the second to the development of the theory of constitutional parliamentary monarchy. Locke does not recognize the absolute monistic power of the state, proving the need for its division into legislative, executive and "federal" (dealing with the external relations of the state) and allowing the right of the people to overthrow the government.