''New Essays on Human Understanding'' () is a chapter-by-chapter rebuttal by
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in ad ...
of
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...
's major work ''
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
''An Essay Concerning Human Understanding'' is a work by John Locke concerning the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. It first appeared in 1689 (although dated 1690) with the printed title ''An Essay Concerning Humane Understand ...
'' (1689). It is one of only two full-length works by Leibniz (the other being the
''Theodicy''). It was finished in 1704, but Locke's death was the cause alleged by Leibniz to withhold its publication. The book was published in 1765, some 60 years following its completion. Leibniz had died in 1716, and never saw its published form.
Like many philosophical works of the time, it is written in
dialogue
Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...
form.
Overview
The two speakers in the book are
Theophilus
Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (''theós'', "God") and φιλία (''philía'', "love or affection") can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend ...
("lover of God" in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
), who represents the views of Leibniz, and
Philalethes ("lover of truth" in Greek), who represents those of Locke. The famous rebuttal to the
empiricist thesis about the provenance of ideas appears at the beginning of ''Book II'': "Nothing is in the mind without being first in the senses, except for the mind itself". All of Locke's major arguments against innate ideas are criticized at length by Leibniz, who defends an extreme view of innate cognition, according to which all thoughts and actions of the soul are innate.
[G. W. Leibniz, ''New Essays on Human Understanding''. Translated and edited by Peter Remnant and Jonathan Bennett. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981, p. 74.] In addition to his discussion of innate ideas, Leibniz offers penetrating criticisms of Locke's views on personal identity,
free will
Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...
,
mind-body dualism, language, necessary truth, and Locke's attempted proof of the
existence of God
The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the exis ...
.
Editions
* ''New Essays on Human Understanding'', 2nd ed., translated and edited by Peter Remnant and Jonathan Bennett, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996, .
See also
*
Implicit cognition
References
Sources
* G. W. Leibniz, ''Akademie-Ausgabe'' (1999): Vol. VI.
External links
*
''New Essays on Human Understanding''Langley translation 1896
Pdf.*
John Dewey
John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century.
The overridi ...
''Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding – A Critical Exposition'' 1888
The ''New Essays'', slightly modified for easier reading
__NOTOC__
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Essays On Human Understanding
1704 books
1765 books
Dialogues
Books by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Books published posthumously