Book I Summary and Analysis

Locke begins his Essay by claiming that it is understanding that separates mankind form all other creatures on earth. It is the understanding, the ability to reason, that allows humans to create technology and to organize our environment. Our understanding, though, like our eyes, is an instrument of perception and apprehension and is, therefore, closed to direct perception itself. In the same way that we can not see the very eyes that allow us to see other things, we also are not able to direct our understanding back in on itself to directly comprehend our own powers of reasoning. Here, Locke is, no doubt, partially leveling an attack at his predecessor Rene Descartes who claimed to have a method that allowed him to introspect directly into the workings of his understanding. Since, as Locke claims, we do not have...