PhilosophersJohn Locke

John Locke

The mind is born a blank slate; power comes from consent.

Empiricism · Liberalism · Social contract1632 – 1704 United KingdomEmpiricistLiberal political thinkerAdvocate of tolerationPhysician

Overview Arguments · 6 Works Quotes Lineage

Inspirations

Descartes method, but against innate ideas

Thomas Hobbes the state of nature and the contract, without absolute power

Aristote nothing in the intellect without the senses

Heirs

Hume empiricism pushed to scepticism

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz the New Essays, a point-by-point reply

Voltaire makes Locke known in France

Jean-Jacques Rousseau social contract, but against property

Montesquieu limiting power

Similar and opposite philosophers

how it is computed

Closest

Étienne de La Boétie Young magistrate and friend of Montaigne: at about eighteen he asks why millions of people serve one tyrant, and answers that it is they who support him.

Susan Wolf A life is meaningful when one loves what is worthy of love and engages with it actively.

George Berkeley Sensible things exist only by being perceived: there is no matter behind our ideas, only minds.

Thomas Paine The rights of man come from his birth, not from a king, and every generation has the same rights as the one before.

Furthest

Richard Rorty Talk of sensations might one day disappear, replaced by the language of neuroscience.

J. M. E. McTaggart He argues that time is not real: past, present and future contradict each other, and without them there is no change.