SOURCE: An introduction to An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, edited by John W. Yolton, Dent, 1977, pp. ix-xxxi.

In the following essay, Yolton discusses the primary philosophical issues and concepts addressed by Locke in Book I of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. He emphasizes Locke's expansive treatment of scientific concepts and problems associated with diverse fields of study including ethics, linguistics, psychology, logic, and theology.

In 1671 Locke began to write what became his Essay concerning Human Understanding, first published in 1690. During those intervening years the Essay went through many drafts, many starts and stops. In letters to friends he discussed some of the problems he confronted during its composition. He himself describes the work as having been 'written by incoherent parcels' ('Epistle to the Reader'). He recognized that what he referred to as, 'This discontinued way of writing may have occasioned, besides others, two faults, viz. that too little...