An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, German An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, published the first edition of 1690 in London, became a classic title empiricist epistemology.

The motto of Cicero's De natura deorum came from ( From the nature of the gods ) to translate with: " How beautiful it is better to be ignorance admit herauszuschwätzen as like and dislike yourself is. " Only the subsequent editions listed the author on the title page; was from the very first issue here, however, no secret Locke's signature followed the dedication.

Publication history

In its first edition, the essay came out in December 1689 on the market. As usual with late publication dates specified as the printing year next year. From the instant success testifies to respect the series of editions 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706 and - as part of the complete works - 1714th European influence unfolded with the self- managed by Locke French edition of Pierre Coste ( 1668-1747 ), the first time in 1700 and reprinted in 1729 appeared. A German edition was not until several decades later under the title attempt by the human intellect. Translated from the English and annotated by Heinrich Engelhard Poley ( Altenburg, 1757) by.

Structure

Starting point for the essay was the one Locke's scholastic training in Oxford on the basis of prevailing in England nominalism. On the other hand, he had dealt extensively in his four-year stay in France with Descartes and his idea innate ideas.

According to Locke examined in the first book, first the origin of the ideas and developed a variety of pragmatic arguments to reject innate ideas. His basic thesis was: Nihil est in intellectu quod non ( prius ) fuerit in sensibus ( Nothing is in the mind, which would not previously in the senses ). The second book deals with the connection of ideas with the experience. The human mind is a tabula rasa at birth, on the experience of writing only. Starting point of knowledge is sense perception. However, Locke was not a sensualist. He distinguished external perceptions ( sensations ) and internal perceptions ( reflections ). The next step is in the third book to examine the role of language, their relationship with the ideas and their significance for the knowledge. Book four, finally, deals with the complex ( combined ) ideas from the frontiers of knowledge and the relationship between reason and faith. Locke criticized the exclusive approach of the ex praecognitis et praeconcessis.

Expenditure ( examples)

  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. London: Printed for Tho. Basset. Sold by Edw. Mory, 1690
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Hg Peter H. Nidditch. Clarendon, Oxford 1975 ISBN 0-19-824386-3
  • Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Hg Udo Thiel. Academy, Berlin 1997 ISBN 3-05-002864-5
Empiricism
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