Introduction
Introduction
This introductory chapter pleads for a reassessment of Locke’s complex attitude to Descartes. It argues that the anti-Cartesian agenda of the Essay is better understood when Locke’s intellectual debt to Descartes and Cartesian philosophers is fully recognized. It shows that Locke’s engagement with Cartesian philosophy cannot be reduced to his defence of an ‘empiricist’ view of knowledge against a rationalist, Cartesian, one. Such characterizations raise perhaps as many problems as they supposedly solve. Besides, epistemology was not Locke’s unique preoccupation in the Essay. Natural philosophy, metaphysics of bodies and souls, religion were no less crucial, even though, at the surface of the text, Locke’s self-proclaimed agnosticism tended to underplay their importance. On these issues, a pluriform confrontation with Descartes was unavoidable, and clearly a driving force in the conduct of Locke’s arguments.
Keywords: Locke, Descartes, Cartesian philosophy, An Essay concerning Human Understanding, empiricism, metaphysics, confrontation of arguments
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
