John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding begins with a clear statement of an epistemological goal: to explain the limits of human knowledge, opinion, and ignorance. The actual text of the Essay, in stark contrast, takes a long and seemingly meandering path before returning to that goal at the Essay’s end—one with many detours through questions in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. Over time, Locke scholarship has come to focus on Locke’s contributions to these parts of philosophy. In Locke’s Science of Knowledge, Priselac refocuses on the Essay’s epistemological thread, arguing that the Essay is unified from beginning to end around its compositional theory of ideas and the active role Locke gives the mind in constructing its thoughts. To support the plausibility and demonstrate the value of this interpretation, Priselac argues that—contrary to its reputation as being at best sloppy and at worst outright inconsistent—Locke’s discussion of skepticism and account of knowledge of the external world fits neatly within the Essay’s epistemology.
By:
Matt Priselac
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 353g
ISBN: 9780367258429
ISBN 10: 0367258420
Series: Routledge Studies in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 05 March 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
,
A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Chapter 1: Simple Ideas, Ideas of Qualities, and the Simple Idea of Power Chapter 2: The Genetic Structure of Ideas of Substances Chapter 3: Locke’s Account of Knowledge Chapter 4: Locke’s Account of Knowledge of the External World Chapter 5: Locke’s Response to Skepticism Chapter 6: Locke and Idealism
Matthew Priselac is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma, USA
Reviews for Locke's Science of Knowledge
This study of Locke's epistemology in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is an original, ambitious, and complex monograph that also shows command of the relevant recent Locke scholarship ... Locke scholars who work through Priselac's rich book will profit from the effort. - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
