Books by John Locke

Designed to serve the needs of students confronting Locke's political thought for the first time, Lee Ward's edition offers a faithful text of Two Treatises of Government with modernized spelling and punctuation. Its Editor's Introduction outlines the main arguments of these works, illustrates the conceptual thread uniting the less frequently read First Treatise with the far more famous Second Treatise , and locates Locke's work amid the turbulent constitutional battles of 1690s England. Helpful notes at the foot of the page, a Thematic Index, and an up-to-date Bibliography are also provided.

A scholarly edition of Essay Concerning Human Understanding by P. H. Nidditch. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Notes and Introduction by Mark G. Spencer, Brock University, OntarioJohn Locke (1632-1704) was perhaps the most influential English writer of his time. HisEssay concerning Human Understanding(1690) and Two Treatises of Government(1690) weighed heavily on the history of ideas in the eighteenth century, and Locke's works are often rightly presented as foundations of the Age of Enlightenment. Both the Essayand the Second Treatise(by far the more influential of the Two Treatises) were widely read by Locke's contemporaries and near contemporaries. His eighteenth-century readers included philosophers, historians and political theorists, but also community and political leaders, engaged laypersons, and others eager to participate in the expanding print culture of the era. His epistemological message that the mind at birth was a blank slate, waiting to be filled, complemented his political message that human beings were free and equal and had the right to create and direct the governments under which they lived. Today, Locke continues to be an accessible author. He provides food for thought to university professors and their students, but has no less to offer the general reader who is eager to enjoy the classics of world literature.