John Locke (1632-1704) was a great admirer and close friend to Isaac Newton, and this relationship will shine through in our treatment of Locke’s epistemology. While Locke’s theories of knowledge and mind may sound quaint to 21st century ears, we should not allow this to blind us to the fact that Locke’s empiricism shaped 18th century philosophy as much as any other person did. It will be the purpose of this post to explain both what Locke’s epistemological theory was, as well as how it departed from what had come before, especially Descartes. (more…)
