To find your answer to this question, I would refer you to Book I, Chapter I, which provides an introduction to the treatise that follows. Here, Locke lies down his methodology, if you will, and the themes which he will focus on in the work which will follow.
I'd point you towards the second point in the introduction, where Locke writes:
"This, therefore, being my purpose—to inquire into the original, certainty, and extent of human knowledge, together with the grounds and degrees of belief, opinion and assent"
He proceeds, in section 3, to lay out his methodology, by which he will pursue this course of study. He will start by trying to discern just where our ideas come from, "and the ways whereby the understanding comes to be furnished with them." From here, his next task is "to show what knowledge the understanding hath by those ideas" and, thirdly, he would intend to study how people come to form various opinions and beliefs about the world around them (in his own words, he is referring to "that assent which we give to any proposition as true, of whose truth yet we have no certain knowledge.")
Finally, in Section 4, he defines his terms. A lot of his analysis hinges on his use of the word, idea, which here he defines in an unconventional matter (he writes that it is "whatsoever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks").
In short, this essay is an epistemological essay, detailing how humans come to form awareness of the world around them, from the root kernels of human cognition to the more complicated and nuanced themes which arise from them. It's an analysis of the workings and functions of human mental activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment