LOCKE'S INFLUENCE ON THOUGHT.
To trace Locke's influence on subsequent speculation would be to write
the History of Philosophy from his time to our own. In England, France,
and Germany there have been few writers on strictly philosophical
questions in this century or the last who have not either quoted
Locke's _Essay_ with approbation, or at least paid him the homage of
stating their grounds for dissenting from it. In the last century,
his other works, especially those on Government and Toleration, may
be said to have almost formed the recognized code of liberal opinion
in this country, besides exercising a considerable influence on the
rapidly developing speculations which, in the middle of the century,
were preparing an intellectual no less than a social revolution in
France. I can here only speak of the nature of Locke's influence, and
of the directions it took, in the very broadest outline, and it is the
less necessary that I should enter into detail, as I have frequently
adverted to it in the preceding chapters.
In England, the _Essay_, though from the first it had its ardent
admirers, seemed, for some years after its appearance, to have produced
its effect on English philosophical literature mainly by antagonism.
Many were the critics who attacked the "new way of ideas," and
attempted to show the evil consequences to morals, religion, and exact
thought which must follow from the acceptance of Locke's speculations.
Here and there he was defended, but the attack certainly largely
outnumbered the defence. Of these controversies I have already given
some account in the chapters on Locke's Life, and need not, therefore,
now recur to them. The first English writer on philosophy of the
highest rank who succeeded Locke was Berkeley, and on him the influence
of his predecessor is so distinctly apparent, that it may well be
questioned whether Berkeley would ever have written the _Principles_
and the _Dialogues_, if Locke had not written the _Essay_. Locke had
regarded not "things" but "ideas" as the immediate objects of the mind
in thinking, though he had supposed these ideas to be representative of
things; but why, argued Berkeley, suppose "things" to exist, if "ideas"
are the only objects which we perceive? Again, Locke had analyzed
the idea of Matter conceived as "Substance" into "we know not what"
support of known qualities. How, then, said Berkeley, do we know that
it exists? The idealist philosophy of Berkeley may thus be viewed as
a development, on one side, of the philosophy of Locke. But Hume, by
carrying Berkeley's scepticism further than he had done himself, and by
questioning the reality of Substance, as applied either to matter or
mind, may be said to have developed Locke's principles in a direction
which was practically the very reverse of that taken by Berkeley.
For the result of Berkeley's denial of "matter" was to enhance the
importance of "mind," and to re-assure men as to the existence of one
all-embracing mind in the person of the Deity. But the result of the
questions which Hume raised as to the substantial existence of either
Matter or Mind was to leave men in a state of pure scepticism, or, as
we should now perhaps call it, Agnosticism. On the other applications
of Hume's method, I need not detain the reader. To the ordinary
common-sense Englishman, who approached philosophical questions with
interest but without any special metaphysical aptitude, the systems
both of Hume and Berkeley appeared to be open to the fatal objection of
paradox, and hence, throughout the eighteenth century, Locke continued,
in ordinary estimation, to hold the supreme place among English
philosophers. Horace Walpole (writing in 1789) probably expresses
the average opinion of the English reading public of his time, when
he says that Locke (with whom he couples Bacon) was almost the first
philosopher who introduced common-sense into his writings. Nor was
it only that he was supreme in popular estimation. His influence is
apparent in almost every philosophical and quasi-philosophical work
of the period. It may specially be mentioned that the doctrine of
Innate Ideas went out of fashion, both word and thing, and, when a
similar doctrine came into vogue at the end of the century, under the
authority of Reid and Stewart, it was in a modified form and under a
new appellation, that of primary or fundamental beliefs. These authors
always spoke with the greatest respect of Locke, and Stewart especially
was always anxious to establish, when possible, an identity of opinion
between himself and his illustrious predecessor. And even in recent
times, when the topics and conditions of philosophical speculation
have undergone so much change, there are few philosophical authors of
eminence who do not make frequent reference to Locke's _Essay_. It
is now perhaps seldom read through except by professed students of
philosophy, but it is still probably oftener "dipped into" than any
other philosophical treatise in the language.
In France, the _Essay_ at first made little way. It took more than
twenty years to sell off the first edition of the French translation,
but from 1723 to 1758 editions followed one another in rapid succession
at intervals of about six years. Voltaire says that no man had been
less read or more abused in France than Locke. The points in his
philosophy which seem to have been specially selected for attack
were the statements that God might, if he pleased, annex thought to
matter, and that the natural reason could not alone assure us of the
immortality of the soul. The qualifications, as the custom is, were
dropped out of these statements, and it was roundly asserted that Locke
maintained the soul to be material and mortal. Voltaire does not fail
to point out the hastiness and injustice of these conclusions, and
is himself unbounded in his admiration for the English philosopher.
Malebranche, he says, is read on account of the agreeableness of his
style, Descartes on account of the hardihood of his speculations;
Locke is not read, because he is merely wise. There never was a
thinker more wise, more methodical, more logical than Locke. Other
reasoners had written a romance of the soul; Locke came and modestly
wrote its history, developing the ideas of the human understanding
as an accomplished anatomist explains the forces of the human body.
Voltaire lived to see the philosophy of Locke, or rather an extreme
phase of it, become almost the established creed of those who cared at
all for speculative questions in France. Condillac in his early work,
the _Essai sur l'Origine des Connoissances Humaines_ (first published
in 1746), simply adopts Locke's account of the origin of knowledge,
finding it in the two sources of Sensation and Reflection. But in his
later work, the _Traité des Sensations_, which appeared in 1754, he
has gone far beyond his master, and not only finds the origin of all
knowledge in sensation alone, but of all our faculties as well. It
is in this work that the metaphor of the gradually animated statue
occurs. Condillac's system soon became the fashionable philosophy
of his countrymen, and both friends and foes credited Locke with
its parentage. With Joseph de Maistre, who may be regarded as the
bitterest exponent of French Ultramontanism, Locke is the immediate
link through whom Helvétius, Cabanis, and the other enemies of the
human race in France had derived from Bacon the principles which had
been so destructive to their country and mankind. But it was not the
followers of Condillac only who professed to base their systems on
the principles of Locke. Degerando, writing in 1813, says, "All the
French philosophers of this age glory in ranging themselves among the
disciples of Locke, and admitting his principles." The great names of
Turgot, Diderot, D'Alembert, Condorcet, and Destutt de Tracy alike
appear in the roll of his professed disciples. And even when the
reaction against the authority of Locke began in France, his influence
might still be traced in authors like Maine de Biran, Royer Collard,
Cousin, and Jouffroy, however emphatically they might repudiate his
system as a whole. Lastly, Auguste Comte may be connected with Locke
through Hume.
Except by way of reaction and opposition, Locke's influence has
been felt much less in Germany than in either England or France.
The earliest opponent of his philosophy, who himself held any high
rank as a philosopher, was Leibnitz, who, in his _Nouveaux Essais_
(written in 1704, but not published till 1765), attacked not only
Locke's specific conclusions, but his method of commencing the study of
philosophy with an examination of the human mind. Yet he recognizes
the _Essay_ as "one of the most beautiful and most esteemed works of
this time." It may be remarked as curious that he is disposed to rate
the _Thoughts on Education_ even still higher than the _Essay_. But,
when we think of Locke's relation to German philosophy, it is mainly
in connexion with the antagonism of Kant. For, though Kant states
that he was "awoke from his dogmatic slumber" by reading Hume, it is
plain, throughout the _Kritik_, that he has in his mind the system of
Locke at least as much as that of his sceptical successor. And yet
these two great philosophers, the reformer of English and the reformer
of German philosophy, have much in common, specially their mode of
approaching the problems of ontology and theology, which have vexed
so many generations of thinkers, by first inquiring into the limits,
capacities, and procedure of the human mind.
Of the specific influence of Locke's treatises on Government, Religion,
Toleration, Education, and Finance I have already said something in
previous chapters. In each one of these subjects the publication of his
views forms a point of departure, and no writer on the history of any
one of them could dispense with a lengthened notice of his theories.
But far more important than their specific influence on other writers,
or even on the development of the subjects with which they deal, has
been the effect of Locke's writings on the history of progress and
civilization. In an age of excitement and prejudice, he set men the
example of thinking calmly and clearly. When philosophy was almost
synonymous with the arid discussion of scholastic subtleties, he wrote
so as to interest statesmen and men of the world. At a time when the
chains of dogma were far tighter, and the penalties of attempting to
loosen them far more stringent, than it is now easy to conceive, he
raised questions which stirred the very depths of human thought. And
all this he did in a spirit so candid, so tolerant, so liberal, and
so unselfish, that he seemed to be writing not for his own party or
his own times, but for the future of knowledge and of mankind. To
sound every question to the bottom, never to allow our convictions to
outstrip our evidence, to throw aside all prejudices and all interests
in the pursuit of truth, but to hold the truth, when found, in all
charity and with all consideration towards those who have been less
fortunate than we--these are the lessons which, faithfully transmitted
through two centuries by those who had eyes to see and ears to hear, he
has bequeathed to us and our posterity.
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Transcriber's note:
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unpaired
quotation marks were retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Greek words are shown in Greek and then in English transliterations
that are indicated by [Greek: ] and were added by the transcriber.
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