
by John Locke
About Second Treatise of Government
Edited by A. John Simmons, "one of our most distinguished theorists of political obligation" (Jeremy Waldron), the Norton Library edition of Locke's Second Treatise of Government features the complete text of the sixth (1764) edition, which incorporated all of Locke's corrections to previous editions. Punctuation has been altered and spelling modernized wherever necessary to eliminate ambiguity and make the text more readable. Extensive endnotes explain obscure terms and references and clarify Locke's arguments. A thorough introduction situates the work in historical and intellectual context and, most importantly, traces its major themes and arguments to help readers approach "the greatest English philosopher['s]" (Antony Flew) most influential work with confidence and understanding.
John Locke, widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered the first of the British empiricists, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the American Declaration of Independence. Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Contrary to pre-existing Cartesian philosophy, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception.<sup>[1][1]</sup> [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke

by John Locke
About Second Treatise of Government
Edited by A. John Simmons, "one of our most distinguished theorists of political obligation" (Jeremy Waldron), the Norton Library edition of Locke's Second Treatise of Government features the complete text of the sixth (1764) edition, which incorporated all of Locke's corrections to previous editions. Punctuation has been altered and spelling modernized wherever necessary to eliminate ambiguity and make the text more readable. Extensive endnotes explain obscure terms and references and clarify Locke's arguments. A thorough introduction situates the work in historical and intellectual context and, most importantly, traces its major themes and arguments to help readers approach "the greatest English philosopher['s]" (Antony Flew) most influential work with confidence and understanding.
John Locke, widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered the first of the British empiricists, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the American Declaration of Independence. Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Contrary to pre-existing Cartesian philosophy, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception.<sup>[1][1]</sup> [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke









