| Unit name | Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PHIL10004 |
| Credit points | 10 |
| Level of study | C/4 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Emeritus Professor. Pyle |
| Open unit status | Open |
| Pre-requisites |
none |
| Co-requisites |
none |
| School/department | Department of Philosophy |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences |
The unit offers an introduction to a classic text, with close attention to a series of important philosophical problems on which what Locke had to say remains of philosophical interest. These will include innate ideas & principles, the empiricist theory of ideas, representative theories of perception, primary and secondary qualities, real and nominal essences, mind and body, personal identity, free agency, and our knowledge of the external world. There will be a twin emphasis on (a) close reading of the text, and (b) close attention to the philosophical arguments. We shall read Locke both as a figure of his time and as someone who might have something to say to modern philosophical concerns. Students will both (a) be given an introduction to one of the great texts of Early Modern philosophy, and (b) will be challenged to use the classic text as a means of addressing deep and perennial issues of philosophy (innatism vs empiricism, the nature of mental representation, knowledge and scepticism, common sense and scientific realism, personal identity)
Students will gain a clear sense of the nature of the empiricist project of the seventeenth century, its radical aims, and the problems it faced (and that empiricists still face). In their essays, students will be required to show both familiarity with key parts of the classic text and an understanding of the deep underlying philosophical problems with which Locke was grappling. They should thus emerge from the course both more historically informed and more philosophically sophisticated.
I lecture (including time for interaction) per week.
One 2000-3000 word essay
Primary Source: John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (numerous editions)
Secondary Literature: E.J. Lowe, Locke on Human Understanding (Routledge, 1995) Nicholas Jolley, Locke: His Philosophical Thought (OUP 1999) Roger Woolhouse, Locke (Harvester, 1983). John Mackie, Problems from Locke (Clarendon 1976)
