Samuel C. Rickless - Locke

Table of Contents

blackwell great minds

edited by Steven Nadler

The Blackwell Great Minds series gives readers a strong sense of the fundamental views of the great western thinkers and captures the relevance of these figures to the way we think and live today.

This edition first published 2014

2014 Samuel C. Rickless

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4051-8935-4

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4051-8936-1

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Cover image: Engraving of John Locke. Bettmann/Corbis.

Cover design by Cyan Design.

To my mother,

Regina Sarfaty Rickless

preface

Writing a book on the most important themes of John Locke's entire philosophical output is a singular challenge. One of the reasons he was such a great philosopher is that he was remarkably knowledgeable and instinctively curious, with a penchant for clarity and systematicity. His work covers topics in the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, philosophy of language, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political philosophy. I have done my very best to provide a concise, clear, and, I hope, relatively accessible conspectus of Locke's contributions in these areas. I would have liked to have been able to discuss more of Locke's theological views, as well as the details of his investigations into natural philosophy (science). But I had to leave these matters to one side for reasons of space. Readers who are interested in these topics will learn a great deal from the work of Victor Nuovo (on the first) and Peter Anstey (on the second), among others.

I have many people to thank for helping me to bring this book to fruition. First and foremost, I am grateful to Steven Nadler and the editorial staff at Wiley Blackwell for granting me the commission, and I thank Gideon Yaffe for encouraging me to take it. Although I had spent some years thinking about various aspects of Locke's philosophy, I had certainly not thought through his views on all the matters covered in the pages to follow. As I wrote, I tried out chapters (or parts thereof) on two audiences, for whose patience and constructive comments I am very grateful: the Roger Woolhouse Memorial Conference at the University of York in JuneJuly 2012, and the History of Philosophy Roundtable at UCSD with special thanks to Donald Baxter, Martha Bolton, Justin Broackes, Lisa Downing, Paul Lodge, Antonia LoLordo, Peter Millican, Lex Newman, Pauline Phemister, Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra, Timothy Stanton, and Tom Stoneham. For their supremely clear-eyed and helpful contributions on a variety of matters Lockean, whether in conversation or on paper or both, I would also like to thank Peter Anstey, Margaret Atherton, Vere Chappell, Michael Jacovides, Nick Jolley, Jessica Gordon-Roth, Ruth Mattern, Ed McCann, David Owen, John Simmons, Galen Strawson, Matthew Stuart, Udo Thiel, Bill Uzgalis, Jeremy Waldron, Ken Winkler, Roger Woolhouse, and Gideon Yaffe: it really does take a village. For supporting my research with the help of a grant that enabled me to purchase most of Locke's correspondence, I would like to thank the UCSD Dean of Arts and Humanities, Seth Lerer, from whom I also learned a great deal about Locke's philosophy of education and his appreciation for, and translation of, Aesop's fables.

For their moral support and willingness to help me parcel out my research and teaching time in the most efficient way possible, I am very grateful to my colleagues David Brink and Don Rutherford, both of whom sacrificed a great deal as (consecutive) department chairs in order to make the UCSD philosophy department the vibrant and stimulating intellectual community that it is. The community of historians of philosophy at UCSD, including my colleagues David and Don, Eric Watkins, Clinton Tolley, Michael Hardimon, and Monte Johnson, and my doctoral student, Nate Rockwood, made excellent suggestions and provided useful objections that contributed to improvements in the book. More than anything, I thank my lucky stars for the fact that my wife and colleague, Dana Kay Nelkin, and our two wonderful children, Sophie and Alice, make it possible for me to live and work in an environment pervaded by intellectual honesty, boundless curiosity, and untrammeled love.

My first ever publication (in 1997) was on Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities. When I received the offprints, I immediately sent one to my mother. When I next visited her, she had found a special stand for it and had given it a prominent place in her study. Every day of my life she has been proud of me and given me unconditional love and support. So this book is dedicated to you, Mom: wife, mother, and opera singer extraordinaire. Thanks for everything, but especially for the banana cream pie.