Locke and Gassendi

There is a general consensus among modern writers on John Locke that he was significantly indebted to Gassendi for some of the main ideas put forward in An essay concerning human understanding. Both of the major biographies of Locke, by H. R. Fox Bourne and Maurice Cranston, take this view. It can also be found in standard works such as Richard Aaron’s John Locke and in more specialized studies such as Gabriel Bonno’s Les Relations intellectuelles de Locke avec la France, as well as in many other works dependent on these. One consequence of this almost unanimous consensus is that Locke’s indebtedness to Gassendi has often come to be asserted with an air of untroubled confidence, even though no evidence is given in its support) Even those writers who have attempted to examine the (mostly manuscript) evidence have all failed to make full use of the material available.

Art · Art history · Epistemology · Humanities · Literature · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Philosophy and Science · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Philosophy