LOCKE, JohnBiblio.com
5 413 résultats
1696réf. 166327London: A. and J. Churchill 1696. Locke's gospel of sound money First edition thus. Several Papers comprises an issue under a collective title page of the second editions of three of John Locke's economic tracts all relating to the recoinage controversy of the 1690s in which the government attempted to replace the country's clipped worn and widely forged coinage with a new devalued currency. Though Locke was writing in response to a specific crisis his works had a lasting impact on monetary theory. He soon gained and retained well into the 19th century the reputation as a defender of an honest commercial society free from currency manipulation by governments. "Locke's writings on money and his arguments against devaluation have almost been regarded as gospels for 'sound money' men" Ming-Hsun Li pp. 104. The tracts included are Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money first edition 1692 Short Observations. on Coining Silver Money first edition 1695 and Further Considerations Concerning Raising the Value of Money first edition 1695. The book is bibliographically complicated composed from existing sheets of the three works with a collective title page in two states. This copy has Yolton's second issue of the collective title page cancelled to read "By Mr. John Locke" rather than the original "By John Locke Esq;". The third work can be present in sheets of either its second or third edition here the second edition and retaining the distinguishing errata slip. Octavo 162 x 94 mm. Recent quarter calf marbled sides vellum tips. Housed in custom black cloth solander box. Contemporary ownership signature of one "Walter John Stone" to title page. Light browning and a few stains. A very good copy. ESTC R19558; Goldsmiths' 3315; Kress 1980; Wing L2757; Yolton 163B. Ming-Hsun Li The Great Recoinage of 1696-9 1963. hardcover
2004réf. 91671Thoemmes Continuum. New. Hardcover. FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request - IN STOCK AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT - Flawless copy brand new pristine never opened -- 3168 pages. EIGHT 8 VOLUME SET. Description: "John Locke 1632-1704 the father of British empiricism is also famous for his writings on politics education and religion. During his lifetime he had a great influence on the major thinkers in Britain and mainland Europe. In Germany his works on tolerance and on the limits of human knowledge were especially important. They supplied central arguments against the prevailing scholasticism of German school metaphysics. Since most German authors of the 18th century lacked a good command of the English language there was a great need for translations. Through these translations Wolff Endelssohn and the Neologians around Reimarus and Lessing were just as much influenced by Locke as by Immanuel Kant. Indeed the German Enlightenment is not intelligible without taking note of the early translations of Locke reprinted here. This eight-volume collection contains the most significant and widely disseminated 18th-century German translations of Locke's main works: his 'Epistola de Tolerantia' 'Of the Conduct of the Understanding' 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding' 'Two Treatises of Government' 'Some Thoughts Concerning Education' and 'The Reasonableness of Christianity'. Also included is the first Latin translation of Locke's Essay 'Concerning Human Understanding' the edition very likely read and used by Kant. Most of these books include informative and prefaces or commentaries by the translators. This set introduced in German by Konstantin Pollok should be a useful resource for scholars of the German Enlightenment and those interested in the development and influence of British empiricism." -- with a bonus offer--; John Locke 1632-1704 the father of British empiricism is also famous for his writings on politics education and religion. During his lifetime he had a great influence on the major thinkers in Britain and mainland Europe. In Germany his works on tolerance and on the limits of human knowledge were especially important. They supplied central arguments against the prevailing scholasticism of German school metaphysics. Since most German authors of the 18th century lacked a good command of the English language there was a great need for translations. Through these translations Wolff Endelssohn and the Neologians around Reimarus and Lessing were just as much influenced by Locke as by Immanuel Kant. Indeed the German Enlightenment is not intelligible without taking note of the early translations of Locke reprinted here. This eight-volume collection contains the most significant and widely disseminated 18th-century German translations of Locke's main works: his "Epistola de Tolerantia" "Of the Conduct of the Understanding" "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" "Two Treatises of Government" "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" and "The Reasonableness of Christianity". Also included is the first Latin translation of Locke's Essay "Concerning Human Understanding" the edition very likely read and used by Kant. Most of these books include informative and prefaces or commentaries by the translators. This set introduced in German by Konstantin Pollok should be a useful resource for scholars of the German Enlightenment and those interested in the development and influence of British empiricism. . 2004. 1843710927 . Thoemmes Continuum hardcover
1690réf. 19072London: Awnsham and John Churchill 1690 1692. First editions of both volumes of Locke's Second and Third Letter Concerning Toleration. Two volumes bound in one. Octavo contemporary calf rebacked. In excellent condition with the text clean contents clean except for light browning rebacked. From the library of James Stonhouse with his signatures and armorial bookplate. Exceptionally rare. The Second Letter Concerning Toleration is a response to the attack on A Letter concerning Toleration Locke's The Argument of the 'Letter concerning Toleration' Briefly Consider'd and Answer'd. In the first letter Locke had claimed 'Toleration to be the chief Characteristical Mark of the True Church'. His views on religious toleration continued to be the subject of controversy and he penned two more letters the fourth of which was published posthumously. Awnsham and John Churchill unknown
1693réf. 122924London: Printed for A. and J. Churchill. As New. Hardcover. FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request - In stock and immediately available for shipment - text pristine & unmarked tight to the spine. 8vo. Pp. 4 p. L. 262 2. – with a bonus offer-- . 1693. Printed for A. and J. Churchill hardcover
1690réf. 151201London: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Ave-Mary Lane 1690. First edition of John Locke's landmark second Letter of Toleration a profound influence on Jefferson Madison and the architecture of the American Constitution on freedom of religion. Octavo bound in three quarter calf with gilt titles to the spine marbled endpapers. In very good condition paper repair to lower corner D1 faint early ink ownership inscription to title page. Rare. John Locke’s Letters on Toleration 1689–1692 articulate one of the most influential defenses of religious toleration in Western political thought. Written in the aftermath of the religious conflicts that followed the Reformation and England’s own civil strife Locke’s argument became foundational for modern liberal constitutionalism—especially principles later reflected in First Amendment doctrines such as free exercise of religion and the separation of church and state. Locke's idea of toleration has been described as "one of the defining topics of political philosophy… a way of thinking about First Amendment rights such as the free exercise of religion and the wall of separation between church and state" Williams and Waldron Toleration 1. Jefferson and Madison in particular "grounded their commitment to freedom of conscience on the foundation laid by Locke in his Letter Concerning Toleration" which Locke wrote in Latin Epistola de Tolerantia in 1685 while in exile in Holland Ravitch & Witeritti Making Good Citizens 245. Soon after publication of Locke's first Letter in the virtually unobtainable 1689 English edition he was anonymously caught up in a heated debate with Jonas Proast whose 1690 Argument of the Letter Concerning Toleration quickly prompted Locke to reply the same year with A Second Letter Concerning Toleration. Locke continued developing his philosophy with "the largest work in the exchange A Third Letter for Toleration almost ten times the lengthy of his original Letter… In recent years… the Locke-Proast controversy has attracted more attention than ever before"—marking a seminal "divide between two conceptions of politics" Vernon Career of Toleration 3-6. Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, at the Black Swan in Ave-Mary Lane unknown
1638réf. 66431London: Printed by John Haviland for Thomas Alchorn 1638. LOCKE John; TYMME Thomas. From the Library of John Locke LOCKE John association. TYMME Thomas. A Silver Watch Bell The Sound whereof is able by the Grace of God to win the most prophane Worldling and careless Liver if there be but the least spark of Grace remaining in him to become a true Christian indeed that in the end he may obtain everlasting Salvation; Whereunto is adjoyned A Treatise of the Holy Sacrament of The Lord's Supper in part augmented. By Thomas Tymme. XVIIIth Impression. London: Printed by John Haviland for Thomas Alchorn 1638. Small octavo. A1 tipped-in leaf with title supplied in ink on recto A3-A8 B-H8 I1 I3-I8 K-T8. 2 blank 2 title in ink verso blank 6 Dedication 4 To the Reader 2 Contents 12-114 117-188 pp. Lacking A2 title-page and I2 pp. 115-116. Text within double-ruled border with headline page numbers and marginal glosses inside outer border. Sixteen head-pieces fourteen ornamental initials and two tail-pieces. Contemporary marbled boards rebacked possibly in 1915 according to pencil note on front pastedown with speckled calf modern red and white paper spine label lettered in ink. Plain endpapers all edges speckled red some trimmed close to headlines and in a few cases to marginal inscriptions. Boards worn hinges cracked. Tiny rust or ink hole to top of front free endpaper tiny wormhole to outer margin of beginning leaves affecting a letter or two of marginal glosses. Over-opened at a few places. Still a very good copy. A popular much-reprinted work Tymme's little religious book was first published in 1605. This copy contains ink inscriptions signatures and marginal notations in at least five different hands: John Locke dated 1669 on p. v Ri. Yolland undated Emmanual Bayhind undated William Yoo dated December 21 1782 on p. 244 and Rietteel dated N. York 1819 on front free endpaper and title-page. We have been unable to locate any information on the later owners of the book. While many of the annotations in the volume are by its later owners pp. iv and v contain Locke's signatures and inscriptions including a quotation in Greek. Numerous other pages pp. 4 6 9 66 78 80 101 118 134 139 144 146 165 228 229 232 234 and 238 contain marginal notes often in Greek in what appears to be the same handwriting. Locke may have noted in the margin of p. 96 the date he purchased the book its cost and a selected list of page numbers; though partially obliterated by a later owner the note seems to read "166.his book of Mr. florins." On p. 176 there appears in the margin a figure which may perhaps be an early crude version of Locke's paraph-the distinctive mark he used to authenticate his signature on legal documents and occasionally to mark his books for an unknown purpose see Harrison and Laslett pp. 41-2. Locke may have marked the spine with a label or press-mark but if so this has been lost when the volume was rebacked. During the period that Locke 1632-1704 acquired and annotated this volume he was a tutor at Christ Church Oxford. A book collector as well as physician writer and scholar Locke amassed his library primarily for his own research purposes. In 1669 however he did not have the bulk of the volumes which would comprise his library at Otes in the 1680s and '90s. In those later years Locke was faced with a rapidly expanding library which confounded attempts to find any particular volume in it. Locke therefore developed a complicated cataloguing procedure to allow him easily to locate the volumes he needed. Though he generally made notations for his own reference on the title-page spine and last page of a work-and often also made a list of page numbers for future reference on a fly-leaf-he typically did not underline words or phrases in his books. "On the whole he left his margins well alone and made his notes in his notebooks" always showing "much admirable respect for the whiteness of his pages and the general appearance of the volumes standing in his boxes" Harrison and Laslett p. 39. It is important to remember though that Locke's cataloguing procedures were developed and perfected in the 1680s and 1690s-this was the first period in his life when his books were physically all in the same place: "Books which went out of Locke's possession in earlier years would have far less and less regular markings-some of them perhaps not marked in any way. But the over-lining and underlining would probably be present with sometimes the author's name. A spine label giving author and a digit indicating size might also be present.These signs are not unusually found in Otes books which had been with Locke before 1683 and occasionally the two figure press-marks there can be seen to have been converted from the one-figure marks which we believe characterized the books in Christ Church in 1681" Harrison and Laslett p. 43. Tymme's volume then is probably one which Locke sold or gave away possibly to a current or former pupil before he perfected his cataloguing method. See Harrison and Laslett The Library of John Locke1965. HBS 66431. $25000. Printed by John Haviland, for Thomas Alchorn unknown
1694réf. 148834London: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black-Swan in Pater-noster Row 1694. Rare second edition of Locke’s famed treatises on government. Duodecimo elaborately bound in full contemporary calf with ruling and tooling stamped in blind to the front and rear panels all edges speckled. In good condition with rubbing losses to the corners and the spine rebacked. Lacking pages 337-352 which are supplied in facsimile and loosely inserted in a pocket adhered to the rear pastedown. Locke's Two Treatises of Government were first published anonymously in December 1689. Locke was unhappy with this edition complaining to the publisher about its many errors. For the rest of his life he was intent on republishing the Two Treatises in a form that better reflected his meaning. The First Treatise of the volume attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha while the Second Treatise outlines Locke's ideas for a more civilized society based on natural rights and contract theory. Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, at the Black-Swan in Pater-noster Row unknown
1638réf. 66431London: Printed by John Haviland for Thomas Alchorn 1638. LOCKE John; TYMME Thomas. From the Library of John Locke LOCKE John association. TYMME Thomas. A Silver Watch Bell The Sound whereof is able by the Grace of God to win the most prophane Worldling and careless Liver if there be but the least spark of Grace remaining in him to become a true Christian indeed that in the end he may obtain everlasting Salvation; Whereunto is adjoyned A Treatise of the Holy Sacrament of The Lord's Supper in part augmented. By Thomas Tymme. XVIIIth Impression. London: Printed by John Haviland for Thomas Alchorn 1638. Small octavo. A1 tipped-in leaf with title supplied in ink on recto A3-A8 B-H8 I1 I3-I8 K-T8. 2 blank 2 title in ink verso blank 6 Dedication 4 To the Reader 2 Contents 12-114 117-188 pp. Lacking A2 title-page and I2 pp. 115-116. Text within double-ruled border with headline page numbers and marginal glosses inside outer border. Sixteen head-pieces fourteen ornamental initials and two tail-pieces. Contemporary marbled boards rebacked possibly in 1915 according to pencil note on front pastedown with speckled calf modern red and white paper spine label lettered in ink. Plain endpapers all edges speckled red some trimmed close to headlines and in a few cases to marginal inscriptions. Boards worn hinges cracked. Tiny rust or ink hole to top of front free endpaper tiny wormhole to outer margin of beginning leaves affecting a letter or two of marginal glosses. Over-opened at a few places. Still a very good copy. A popular much-reprinted work Tymme's little religious book was first published in 1605. This copy contains ink inscriptions signatures and marginal notations in at least five different hands: John Locke dated 1669 on p. v Ri. Yolland undated Emmanual Bayhind undated William Yoo dated December 21 1782 on p. 244 and Rietteel dated N. York 1819 on front free endpaper and title-page. We have been unable to locate any information on the later owners of the book. While many of the annotations in the volume are by its later owners pp. iv and v contain Locke's signatures and inscriptions including a quotation in Greek. Numerous other pages pp. 4 6 9 66 78 80 101 118 134 139 144 146 165 228 229 232 234 and 238 contain marginal notes often in Greek in what appears to be the same handwriting. Locke may have noted in the margin of p. 96 the date he purchased the book its cost and a selected list of page numbers; though partially obliterated by a later owner the note seems to read "166.his book of Mr. florins." On p. 176 there appears in the margin a figure which may perhaps be an early crude version of Locke's paraph-the distinctive mark he used to authenticate his signature on legal documents and occasionally to mark his books for an unknown purpose see Harrison and Laslett pp. 41-2. Locke may have marked the spine with a label or press-mark but if so this has been lost when the volume was rebacked. During the period that Locke 1632-1704 acquired and annotated this volume he was a tutor at Christ Church Oxford. A book collector as well as physician writer and scholar Locke amassed his library primarily for his own research purposes. In 1669 however he did not have the bulk of the volumes which would comprise his library at Otes in the 1680s and '90s. In those later years Locke was faced with a rapidly expanding library which confounded attempts to find any particular volume in it. Locke therefore developed a complicated cataloguing procedure to allow him easily to locate the volumes he needed. Though he generally made notations for his own reference on the title-page spine and last page of a work-and often also made a list of page numbers for future reference on a fly-leaf-he typically did not underline words or phrases in his books. "On the whole he left his margins well alone and made his notes in his notebooks" always showing "much admirable respect for the whiteness of his pages and the general appearance of the volumes standing in his boxes" Harrison and Laslett p. 39. It is important to remember though that Locke's cataloguing procedures were developed and perfected in the 1680s and 1690s-this was the first period in his life when his books were physically all in the same place: "Books which went out of Locke's possession in earlier years would have far less and less regular markings-some of them perhaps not marked in any way. But the over-lining and underlining would probably be present with sometimes the author's name. A spine label giving author and a digit indicating size might also be present.These signs are not unusually found in Otes books which had been with Locke before 1683 and occasionally the two figure press-marks there can be seen to have been converted from the one-figure marks which we believe characterized the books in Christ Church in 1681" Harrison and Laslett p. 43. Tymme's volume then is probably one which Locke sold or gave away possibly to a current or former pupil before he perfected his cataloguing method. See Harrison and Laslett The Library of John Locke1965. HBS 66431. $25000. Printed by John Haviland, for Thomas Alchorn unknown books
1690réf. 187184London: first: Printed for Awnsham Churchill 1690; second & third: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill 1690 & 1692. Locke's three letters on toleration in a single volume with a probable connection to Locke's Somerset friends First editions of the Second and Third Letters second edition in English of the First collecting in a single volume all the works on toleration published by Locke in his lifetime. Following Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 Locke was moved to publish views he had previously circulated only in manuscript. Although intended primarily for Christians and particularly for dissenting Protestants the three Letters outline a hugely influential conception of the proper relationship between government and religion. For Locke the state cannot and should not compel individuals to adopt particular faiths. Churches are re-conceived as voluntary societies which can be joined or left without incurring civil penalties - subject to the concerns of civil society and foreign influence. Locke's original Epistola de tolerantia 1689 was swiftly translated into English by his friend William Popple who was responsible for the phrase often attributed to Locke himself "Absolute Liberty Just and True Liberty Equal and Impartial Liberty is the thing that we stand in need of" p. iv. In April 1690 an Oxford clergyman disputed the Letter's rejection of force which prompted Locke to reply that summer under an assumed identity with the Second Letter and then under his own identity with the much longer Third Letter of 1692. A fourth was left in manuscript at Locke's death in 1702; it was first published in the Posthumous Works 1706. The first and second Letters bear the contemporary ink signature of Thomas Musgrave on their title pages. This is probably a member of the Musgrave family of Nettlecombe Somerset whom Locke knew well. William Musgrave 1655-1721 was a fellow member of the Royal Society while Dr George Musgrave d. 1721 a country physician married the daughter of Edward Clarke one of Locke's closest friends. Locke himself a trained physician knew George Musgrave well enough to write letters praising his medical skills: the latter returned the compliment by providing some of the first admiring reviews of Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1694. The Somerset archives contain the 1723 will of one Thomas Musgrave of Nettlecombe. A similar hand possibly that of Musgrave has made a further annotation on the rear free endpaper verso. 3 works bound in 1 vol. the first duodecimo 139 x 70 mm the others quarto 205 x 142 mm; pp. iv 87 5; pp. iv 68; pp. iv 350 2. Contemporary panelled calf edges sprinkled red. Joints and extremities restored spot of wear to corners light bumping faint offsetting to several leaves Third Letter with minor loss to upper outer corner of half-title and short closed tears to outer margins of Gg4 & Yy1 each just touching text: still a very good volume indeed. ESTC R21477; R5484; R5673; Printing and the Mind of Man 163; Wing L2748 L2755 L2765; Yolton 4; 25; 27. See Sowerby 1338. unknown
1690réf. 31842London: by Eliz. Holt for Thomas Basset 1690. First edition first issue with the Undated Dedication with the title-page listing Eliz. Holt the Properly Positioned “SS” the first imprint and all points called for typographical ornaments line 3 has them upside down in columns 2 through 6 while in line 4 all ornaments are upside down with five of the six possible misnumbered pages for this issue: "85" as "83" "287" as "269" "296" as "294" "303" as "230" and "319" as "327" page 55 with "Underwandings" as called for with the incorrect Roman numerals to pp. 57 and 263 and the deleted 24 paragraph indicator at page 90. With contemporaneous signature “J Locke” on the title page and three handwritten corrections "in" “extremely” and the insert “some” which may be in Locke's hand in the preliminaries. Folio 320 x 195 mm. full polished calf to style handsomely and discreetly double lined in gilt on the covers and the spine with raised bands ruled in gilt with red morocco lettering label gilt in best style on the spine. In beautiful condition. title 10 1-362 22 Contents pp. A handsome and pleasing and crisp copy in lovely condition some quite unobtrusive evidence of age mellowing or toning to the lower edges of the leaves probably from old damp. FIRST EDITION FIRST ISSUE OF THIS SINGULARLY IMPORTANT WORK IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AND EPISTEMOLOGY. Locke's ESSAY was the "first attempt on a great scale and in the Baconian spirit to estimate critically the certainty and the adequacy of human knowledge when confronted with God and the universe" EB. It served as the most concrete manifestation of a new empiricist spirit in contrast to the metaphysical philosophies of Descartes Spinoza and Leibniz. Locke was inspired to write the ESSAY in 1671 after a philosophical discussion with friends in which he realized that no progress could be made before they had examined the mind's capacities and seen "what objects our understandings were or were not fitted to deal with" from the "Epistle to the Reader". "Other philosophers had reflected on and written about human knowledge.But Locke was the first philosopher to devote his main work to an inquiry into human understanding its scope and its limits. And we can say that the prominent place occupied in modern philosophy by the theory of knowledge is in large measure due to him." Copleston A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. Locke's influence was widespread and was not strictly limited to pure philosophical enquiry. In America his emphasis on rational thought versus "enthusiasm" provided ammunition and philosophical grounding to opponents of the revivalist and itinerant preachers of the Great Awakening and in the nineteenth century the "nature versus nurture" thesis was employed by Unitarians and other anti-Calvinist factions to argue that human nature was improvable through nurture and self-culture rather than corrupt beyond hope without conversion through a special act of divine grace. In England Locke had a strong influence on the literature of the Augustan Age Sterne Addison and the members of the Scriblerus Club all acknowledging the currency of his ideas. "The art of education political thought theology and philosophy especially in Britain France and America long bore the stamp of the ESSAY or of reaction against it" Fraser quoted in Grolier. Locke's ESSAY has passed through more editions than any classic in modern philosophical literature and remains a cornerstone in the history of human thought. by Eliz. Holt for Thomas Basset hardcover
1690réf. 168757London: by Eliz. Holt for Thomas Basset 1690. One of the principal sources of empiricism in modern philosophy First edition first issue with the Holt imprint. Locke worked for nearly two decades on his investigation of "the certainty and the adequacy of human knowledge" PMM and the resulting landmark work influenced many Enlightenment philosophers. Locke argued that all our knowledge comes from experience and through our senses rather than innate ideas. The mind is at birth a clean sheet a tabula rasa; since only material things can affect our sense we can know nothing but matter and must accept a materialistic philosophy. Locke concluded that "though knowledge must necessarily fall short of complete comprehension it can at least be 'sufficient'; enough to convince us that we are not at the mercy of pure chance and can to some extent control our own destiny" ODNB. Locke's Essay quickly ran to several editions and was popularized on the continent through French translations. "Few books in the literature of philosophy have so widely represented the spirit of the age and country in which they appeared or have so influenced opinion afterwards. The art of education political thought theology and philosophy especially in Britain France and America long bore the stamp of the Essay or of reaction against it" Grolier. Voltaire and Diderot accepted Locke with little question Hume and Kant continued the investigation and Bishop Berkeley rejected it with his own immaterialism. The edition was reissued with a cancel title bearing an Edward Mory imprint. Provenance: inscription to front free endpaper "Robert Kirktowne London: 1698" a Robert Kirktowne is recorded as a naval surgeon in the period 18th-century inscription to the front pastedown "Ex libris Gulielmi Byrd MTS". This is possibly William Byrd II 1674-1744 a large landowner in Virginia who studied at Middle Temple in London explaining the MTS Middle Temple School initials. Folio 318 x 192 mm pp. xii 362 22. Contemporary speckled calf red morocco label covers bordered in blind edges speckled red. Housed in a dark blue quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Ninteenth-century shelf label at head of spine. Skilful restoration at extremities leaf D2 with defective inner margin resulting in a number of missing words supplied in manuscript in early hand. A few splashes and scratches to covers else well-preserved contents a little toned else clean: a very good copy. Attig 228; ESTC R22993; Garrison-Morton 4967; Grolier English 100 72; Pforzheimer 599; Printing and the Mind of Man 164; Hook & Norman 1380; Wing L-2738; Yolton 61A. unknown
1690réf. 32820531FIRST EDITION FIRST ISSUE with the integral Eliz. Holt title-page. An excellent fresh copy of this classic of philosophy the first modern attempt to analyze knowledge. "Few books in the literature of philosophy have so widely represented the spirit of the age and country in which they have appeared or have so influenced opinion afterwards" Fraser. "The Essay has long been recognized as one of the great works of English literature of the 17th century and one of the epoch-making works in the history of philosophy. It has been one of the most repeatedly reprinted widely disseminated and read and profoundly influential books of the past three centuries" Nidditch. "Locke is often classified as the first of the great English empiricists ignoring the claims of Bacon and Hobbes. This reputation rests on Locke's greatest work the monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Locke sold the copyright to the publisher Thomas Basset for thirty pounds plus six bound copies of every later edition and ten shillings for every sheet of additions to later printings. By 1800 twenty editions had appeared indicating work's great influence. Locke's intellectual heirs include Berkeley Hume and Bentham and the Radicals. "Locke was the first to take up the challenge of Bacon and to attempt to estimate critically the certainty and the adequacy of human knowledge when confronted with God and the universe. In the past similar enquiries had been vitiated by the human propensity to extend them beyond the range of human understanding and to invent causes for what it cannot explain. Therefore Locke's first task was to ascertain 'the original certainty and extent of human knowledge' and excluding 'the physical consideration of the mind to show how far it can comprehend the universe.' His conclusion is that though knowledge must necessarily fall short of complete comprehension it can at least be 'sufficient'; enough to convince us that we are not at the mercy of pure chance and can to some extent control our own destiny" Printing and the Mind of Man 164. Folio. Contemporary paneled calf red leather label. Rebacked preserving spine old endpapers. Manuscript correction on A3v. A very good fresh copy. Liz Holt
1690réf. 151350London: Printed for Awnsham Churchill 1690. Exceptionally rare first edition published at the end of 1689 in an edition of likely only 1000 copies with quire Q in second of two settings. Octavo bound in full calf morocco spine label gilt tooling to the spine blind stamped to the front and rear panels. Title-page within double rule. In very good condition. Rare and desirable. “In Two Treatises on Government… John Locke developed what he considered the ‘true original extent and end of civil government.’ The First Treatise was devoted to a refutation of the theory of divine right monarchy expounded by Sir Robert Filmer in his Patriarcha published in 1680. In his Second Treatise Locke presented his positive views on the origins of the social order. Civil society and government Locke argued were founded on an original social compact entered into by autonomous individuals in a state of nature. The powers of government Locke contended were limited by the authority granted by the free consent of the individuals subscribing to the social compact. Locke’s Second Treatise has been credited with great influence on American constitutionalism… Locke had a profound impact…. on the theoretical basis for forming new governments… Locke had a formative influence on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and on the early state constitutions” A Covenanted People 37. “The Second Treatise contains a plain statement of the principles of democracy. In an age and country in which the practice of democracy had just been triumphantly vindicated Locke’s theories… had all the freshness of novelty… civil rulers hold their power not absolutely but conditionally; government being essentially a moral trust which lapses if the trustees fail to maintain their side of the contract… The Treatises of Government provide a classic example of the empirical approach to social and political economy which has remained ever since the basis of the principles of democracy” PMM 163. Printed for Awnsham Churchill unknown
