Reasoned Freedom: John Locke and Enlightenment

by Peter A. Schouls

Overview

Although John Locke has often been called the Enlightenment's great progenitor, his use of the concepts that characterize Enlightenment thought has rarely been examined. In this lucid and penetrating book, Peter A. Schouls considers Locke's major writings in terms of the closely related ideas of freedom, progress, mastery, reason, and education. The resulting intellectual portrait provides a historically nuanced interpretation of a thinker crucial to the development of Western political philosophy and philosophy of education.

Schouls centers his analysis on Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding, but he also reexamines the often-ignored texts on education. Stressing the originality of Locke's enterprise, Schouls first explores Locke's reliance on Descartes for a method for the pursuit of general knowledge. He then examines Locke's thinking on (self-)mastery and the importance of reason to its achievement. For Locke, a human being has a radically autonomous nature that enables him or her to attain mastery; nurture may help or hinder this achievement.

Turning to the critical role of freedom in the struggle for self-liberation from passions and prejudices, Schouls concludes that, although wrong education explains widespread failure to achieve mastery, right education cannot guarantee its achievement. It is, rather, in the interplay of education, reason, and freedom that Schouls locates the revolutionary promise of Locke's account of human self-fulfillment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801427589
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	10/22/1992
Series:	3/2/2001
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Peter A. Schouls is an adjunct professor at both the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. The author of four books and many articles on the history of philosophy, he lectures on topics as diverse as freedom, progress, capitalism and revolution, and individualism and responsibility.

Table of Contents

Preface

I. Locke, Descartes, and the Enlightenment
1. Locke as Intermediary
2. "Master-Builder" and "Under-Labourer"
3. Locke as a Revolutionary
4. Locke and Cartesian Methodology

A. Reason and the Nature of a Master

II. Human Nature and Reason
1. Natural Rationality
2. Potentiality and Essence
3. "Man Has No Nature at All"

III. The Dogma of Infallible Reason
1. The Infallibility of Reason
2. The Epistemic Immediacy of Reflection and Intuition
3. The Temporal and Logical Immediacy of Intuition

IV. "Infallible" Reason, Prejudice, and Passion
1. Reason, Prejudice, and Passion
2. Reason as Destroyer of Prejudice
3. Reason as Servant of Passion

B. Freedom and the Nature of a Master

V. Freedom and Unobstructed Action
1. Man Is "A Part of the Mechanism of Nature"
2. Unobstructed Action Not Determined by Reason
3. Unobstructed Action Guided by Inadequate Understanding
4. Unobstructed Action Guided by Reason

VI. Self-Determination
1. The Experience of Self-Determination
2. Self-Determination and Authorization by Reason
3. Self-Determination and the Master Passion
4. The Master Passion and Progress

C. The Education of a Potential Master

VII. Human Nature and Education
1. "Of Power" and Locke on Education
2. The Tabula Rasa
3. Original Neutrality

VIII. Education, Reason, and Freedom
1. "Principling," Reason, and Freedom
2. Education and Methodology, or Reason as the Teacher
3. Mastery and Progress

Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Kenneth P. Winkler

Some works on Locke are read almost exclusively by philosophers, others by historians and political theorists, and still others by historians of education. This book will be of interest to all of them. It is a clearly written and intelligent study of some neglected—but highly important—themes.

John W. Yolton

A rare close reading of Locke's work on education, showing as well a thorough and sensitive understanding of Locke's thought on many important doctrines and issues. Peter A. Schouls offers a number of new interpretations of Locke on the nature of reason, rationality, the role of the passions. freedom, and learning. This study should take its place among the better books on Locke.

Editorial Reviews

"A rare close reading of Locke's work on education, showing as well a thorough and sensitive understanding of Locke's thought on many important doctrines and issues. Peter A. Schouls offers a number of new interpretations of Locke on the nature of reason, rationality, the role of the passions. freedom, and learning. This study should take its place among the better books on Locke."

--John W. Yolton, author of The Two Intellectual Worlds of John Locke

"Some works on Locke are read almost exclusively by philosophers, others by historians and political theorists, and still others by historians of education. This book will be of interest to all of them. It is a clearly written and intelligent study of some neglected--but highly important--themes."

--Kenneth P. Winkler, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley

From the Publisher

"Some works on Locke are read almost exclusively by philosophers, others by historians and political theorists, and still others by historians of education. This book will be of interest to all of them. It is a clearly written and intelligent study of some neglected—but highly important—themes."

Kenneth P. Winkler

"A rare close reading of Locke's work on education, showing as well a thorough and sensitive understanding of Locke's thought on many important doctrines and issues. Peter A. Schouls offers a number of new interpretations of Locke on the nature of reason, rationality, the role of the passions. freedom, and learning. This study should take its place among the better books on Locke."

John W. Yolton