John Locke Research Paper

John Locke and René Descartes were both early seventeenth century philosophers striving to explain or answer the great questions of their time. What is the mind or self and how does it relate to the brain? How can we gain knowledge? Are we the same person we were several years ago? These two great philosophers had similar and conflicting views on these various questions of life. Locke was influenced by his readings of Descartes and adopted some of his philosophical terminology and thought. Considering this influence they still present different philosophies. These different philosophies stem from the two original schools of thought in epistemology; the study of knowledge. Descartes was a fierce rationalist meaning that he believed that

They belonged to two different schools of thought empiricism and rationalism. A specific difference between the two philosophers was their trust of the senses. Descartes had a very deep mistrust of the senses finding them to be very misleading. In many of his philosophical writings he claimed that people should doubt the senses and that excising pure rational thought can produce answers. Descartes being a rationalist believed people were born with some innate thought. For Locke this could not be further from the truth. Locke's idea was that true knowledge only comes from the senses. He believes that people are born with nothing their minds empty of innate thought and this was a strong argument. How can someone have knowledge without at least one of the senses? Hume strengthened the claims of Locke by stating, “A blind man can form no notion of colours; a deaf man of sounds. Restore either of them that sense in which he is deficient; by opening this new inlet for his sensations, you also open an inlet for the ideas; and he finds no difficulty in conceiving these objects” (Hume). Locke's other argument against Descartes mediation of God being an innate thought also has compelling points. John Locke points out how God cannot be an innate thought due to the fact that it is not universally agreed upon. Descartes being a dualist provides further conflicting views with Locke. Descartes believed the

If I had to pick between the two philosophers my views would align more with those of Locke but I cannot say that I do not believe in some of the writings of Descartes. I believe that our senses are not fully reliable but I do believe they have a key role in how we process things. Locke purposes very strong arguments against the mediations of Descartes. I find Locke to be very intuitive with his philosophies especially regarding personal identity which can go along with theories of Descartes. Many of the early philosophers believed in the resurrection of the body and were concerned with something happening to their body after death. Locke's theory of personal identity completely avoided this issue. This is where my view align with those of Locke. He believed that the connection of memories is what made people who they are not the physical body. The reason of my support in the ideas of Locke are based in his theories of personal identity and that we need our senses to obtain knowledge. Without some of our senses we would be unable to process information correctly. A deaf man can not have a deep understanding or appreciation of music without being introduced to his sense of sound. A blind man could not appreciate art or an understanding of colors without first being introduced to his sense of sight. I do have some disagreement within this theory . I