John_Locke

=__John Locke and The Essay Concerning Human Understanding__=

//“Reader: I have put into thy hands what has been the diversion of some of my idle and heavy hours. If it has the good luck to prove so of any of thine, and thou hast but half so much pleasure in reading as I had in writing it, thou wilt as little think thy money, as I do my pains, ill bestowed. Mistake not this for a commendation of my work; nor conclude, because I was pleased with the doing of it, that therefore I am fondly taken with it now it is done”.// -John Locke //An Essay Concerning Human Understanding//

John Locke & His Life
John Locke, a philosopher, was born in England on August 29th, 1632. He was left motherless at an early age, his mother passing away when he was an infant, and his father following suit soon after. He was educated at the Westminster School and continued at Christ Church, where he remained for thirty years, leaving only when he was forced to by royal mandate in 1684; he was offered a clergy position but turned it down. He soon became interested in science and was elected into the Royal Society in 1668. Although he did not obtain a medical degree until 1674, long after he began practicing as a doctor, he engaged in the study of medicine and occasionally put his knowledge to use. After helping the Earl of Shaftesbury overcome a medical complaint and gaining his favor, he gained power among the elite and was appointed secretary of the board of trade. After writing fifteen major works and a number of minor ones, many of them unpublished, he died on October 28, 1704 at age 72.

Locke published three works that eventually became his claims to fame; in 1689 he wrote //A Letter Concerning Toleration// and //Two Treatises of Government//, and in 1690 he wrote //An Essay Concerning Human Understanding//. //A Letter Concerning Toleration//, originally published in Latin, was actually published by a friend of Locke’s without his knowledge. It expresses his opinions on religious tolerance; opposing the views of Thomas Hobbes, who claimed that religious uniformity was the key to peace, Locke saw religious uniformity as a road to civil unrest. He asserts that civil unrest occurs when leaders attempt to force one religion upon people who want to choose their own beliefs. According to Locke, if leaders would simply allow citizens to choose their own religions (with the exception of atheists and Roman Catholics) then peace could be achieved; violence, he claimed, was not the answer. His essay essentially breaks down into three central conclusions:

1) The government has no rightful control over the beliefs of citizens, since, in his opinion, there was no such thing as divine rule and God did not control the government. 2) Forcing a person to follow a particular religion will do nothing for their salvation, since one can obey but not change their beliefs on command. 3) God does not condone coercion against the will of others.

//Two Treatises of Government// was published anonymously by Locke. It was written in two parts; the first book attacked Sir Robert Filmer’s //Patriarcha//, an advocate of the divine right theory. He provides evidence against Filmer’s belief that only a descendant of Adam can rule and points out that, since it would be impossible to actually find a descendant of Adam, no government can force citizens to consider their leader a divine ruler. He concludes the book by stating that there is no proof to support Filmer’s theory and it, therefore, could not be truth.

The second book discusses the laws of nature and how they interact with the laws of government. Men, Locke claims, are not free to do as they please, even without the interference of man-made government; the laws of nature dictate what people can and cannot do. He stresses the fundamental and natural rights of “life, liberty and property” [[|7]] and establishes that government is created as a social contract between rulers and citizens; a government is only beneficial when it defends these natural rights. In addition, if a government fails to do so, it is not only in the best interests of the people to revolt but it is their moral obligation. He discusses slavery, property, conquest and representative government. The theories expressed in this book have been used as inspiration for governments across the world, although its most famous use can be found in the United States’ Declaration of Independence during the American Revolution.

The Essay Concerning Human Understanding
In 1690, John Locke put out his most influential work, //An Essay Concerning Human Understanding//. In this work he provided the basis for humans understand concepts, and how we acquire basic knowledge. He Wrote Human Understanding after working with English physician Thomas Sydenham. His Influence inspired him to write this book on how human’s function. He broke the essay down into 4 different “books”, but books I and II are the books that are most closely associated with __Frankenstein__. Within books I and II he states that when a human is born into the world, its mind is a black slate. Locke states, //"Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas:- How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience"//. The way that the brain is shaped is due to all experiences they will have in their lives. He argued that many things like taste, color recognition, and pain aren’t formed while in the womb of the mother. He states that //“One may perceive how, by degrees, afterwards, ideas come into their minds; and that they get no more, nor other, than what experience, and the observation of things that come in their way, furnish them with; which might be enough to satisfy us that they are not original characters stamped on the mind”//.

Locke also argues that people do not have what he calls “innate principles”, meaning principles that are acquired at birth. He felt that this would mean with are born with innate ideas, which do not exist at birth. He states, //“Every man being conscious to himself that he thinks; and that which his mind is applied about whilst thinking being the ideas that are there, it is past doubt that men have in their minds several ideas,- such as are those expressed by the words whiteness, hardness, sweetness, thinking, motion, man, elephant, army, drunkenness, and others: it is in the first place then to be inquired, How he comes by them?”.// Locke also talks about a theory of ideas, including his distinction between passively acquired “simple ideas”, like determining color and taste, and actively built “complex ideas”, such as understanding numbers. Locke also distinguishes between the truly existing ”primary qualities” of bodies, like shape, motion and the arrangement of minute particles, and the “secondary qualities” that are as he says//, "powers to produce various sensations in us"// such as "red" and "sweet." These //secondary qualities//, Locke claims, are dependent on the aforementioned primary qualities.

**Connections To Frankenstein**
//Frankenstein// exhibits great influence from John Locke’s //An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.// In his essay, John Locke explains the foundations of human knowledge and understanding. According to Locke, the mind is at a completely blank state at birth. He also explains that all ideas and all things learned are developed through experience, either by sensation or reflection. Humans are also born without innate principles, or principles that exist from birth. These very same principles are heavily referenced in Mary Shelley’s //Frankenstein.// John Locke’s main ideas that are expressed in his essay become evident through the birth of the creature. When the creature is first born, he knows nothing of his body functions, capabilities, or surroundings. He is the equivalent of a new-born infant. This is evident when the creature first begins his narrative and says “A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses” (Shelley, 84). He also discovered his ability to walk when he says “…but I now found that I could wander at my liberty, with no obstacles I could either surmount or avoid” (84). In this excerpt, the creature, resembling that of a newborn child, is born without any innate principles with his mind at a blank state. Further referencing Locke’s ideas, the creature becomes aware of his sensory details **through experience** when he comes in contact with fire. This is evident when he says “…I found a fire…and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy, I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain” (85-86). Through this painful experience, the creature furthered his knowledge about his surroundings and sensory details. Another learning experience that the creature had endured through a learning process and experience was learning to cook his food by using the fire: “…for I found some of the offals that the travelers had left had been roasted, and tasted much more savory than the berries I gathered from the trees. I tried, therefore, to dress my food in the same manner, placing it on the live embers” (86). Through experience, the creature now knows how to cook his food. One of the most important learning processes that the creature experiences is the ability to speak. This is accomplished through his experience and observations of others: “I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by articulate sounds. I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers” (92). The creature then begins to imitate these sounds and discovers the wonders of speaking.

When the creature is born, his mind is in a blank state with no innate principles. All that is learned and all that knows was derived only from his personal experiences and interactions. These ideas used by Mary Shelley in //Frankenstein// coincide with the ideas and principles expressed in John Locke’s //An Essay Concerning Human Understanding//.