Introduction

Locke tells how the book began with a discussion among five or six friends in his room: they reached a point on which they could make no progress, and it occurred to him that before going into such questions they should examine their own understanding and see what objects it was fitted to deal with. He rejects the doctrine of innate ideas and holds that the mind at birth is like a 'white paper', all its ideas coming from experience, from sensation of external things and reflection on its own operations. He distinguishes the 'primary qualities' of bodies, figure, size and motion, from their 'secondary qualities', colour, sound and taste, and discusses substance, personal identity, language and the limits of knowledge. The book founded the tradition of British empiricism and deeply influenced Berkeley, Hume and the whole Enlightenment. This volume translates its most important parts.