When Two People Are RIght

When people begin to question the human mind and how it functions two of the main discussion is thoughts and reason. Why do we think about the thoughts we have? Do they just simply manifest in our minds or is something more? Does our environment we live in affect them? Does our past? Or does it come from both? Where does our capability to make reason stem from? Is it not our own human instinct or does our ability to make reason also stem from our environment and past? John Locke attempts the answer and explains thought and reason in his "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding". 

I personally believe that John Locke's views or theories to these questions are as close to the real answer that humans are ever going to get. Locke shows that in Book II of his essay that "the mind is a tabula rasa or blank sheet until experience in the form of sensation and reflection provide the basic materials—simple ideas—out of which most of our more complex knowledge is constructed," (Standford). Logically speaking this makes sense as to how could someone think about something with any prior knowledge of it? Our many life experiences directly affect everything we do in life as it is determined by our past. The thoughts we create manifest through those are past experiences. Our logic or reason stems from what we have seen in the past. For example, if our past teaches us to care about other people and to not just worry about one's self then an individual's reason would be to take care of other people. If they have only been shown to take care of themselves that is what they will believe they should do. People are constructs of the environment.

 As discussed in class Locke's essay had a major influence on the founding of the United States. Locke "pioneered the ideas of natural law, social contract, religious toleration, and the right to the revolution that proved essential to both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution that followed." His influence over the early stages of the building of the country is still felt today as his beliefs that everyone is created equal. With such a lasting effect on society hundreds of years after his death, it is how his essay would influence people during the Enlightenment period. 

Figures such as Swift, Johnson, Sterne, Voltaire, Priestly, and Jefferson all would be influenced by the essay. “His influence in the history of thought, on the way we think about ourselves and our relation to the world we live in, to God, nature, and society, has been immense” (Aarsleff 1994: 252). I believe that Locke's essay created a new way of viewing the world for many and answered different questions about how to relate with other people. Understanding someone else's views on a subject could be understood by first understanding how that person's past affected them personally.  This is important as two people can view a matter in a completely different way. People experience things differently creating different views. Two people can disagree about something but both be right based on their experiences. For example, one person might hate a specific food and another may love it. Both are correct but how they experienced the food is what created their belief about the food. 

John Locke will forever be remembered as one of the most influential philosophers in human history. His accomplishments helped bring humanity through the Enlightenment Age and his theories still hold true today. 

  

Sources:

Connolly. Patrick. "John Locke," Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and its Authors. https://iep.utm.edu/locke/

McDaniel, Robb. "John Locke,"  Middle Tennessee State University. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1257/john-locke#:~:text=Often%20credited%20as%20a%20founder,the%20U.S.%20Constitution%20that%20followed.

Standford. "John Locke," Standford  Univerity. May 1, 2018. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/#BookI

Standford. "John Locke," Standford  Univerity. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/influence.html