(From I.i.2- Design) This, therefore, being my purpose–to inquire into the original, certainty, and extent of human knowledge, together with the grounds and degrees of belief, opinion, and assent … The understanding, like the eye, whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself and it requires and art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object. (From I.i.1- An Inquiry into the Understanding pleasant and useful) Since it is the understanding that sets man above the rest of sensible beings, and gives him all the advantage and dominion which he has over them it is certainly a subject, even for its nobleness, worth our labour to inquire into. The commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master-builders, whose mighty designs, in advancing the sciences, will leave lasting monuments to the admiration of posterity: but every one must not hope to be a Boyle or a Sydenham and in an age that produces such masters as the great Huygenius and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with some others of that strain, it is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge … After we had awhile puzzled ourselves, without coming any nearer a resolution of those doubts which perplexed us, it came into my thoughts that we took a wrong course and that before we set ourselves upon inquiries of that nature, it was necessary to examine our own abilities, and see what objects our understandings were, or were not, fitted to deal with. (From The Epistle to the Reader) Were it fit to trouble thee with the history of this Essay, I should tell thee, that five or six friends meeting at my chamber, and discoursing on a subject very remote from this, found themselves quickly at a stand, by the difficulties that rose on every side. Nidditch (Oxford, 1975) but Roger Woolhouse’s Penguin edition is superior in some respects.) (Textual note: the standard edition of the Essay is that of P.H. For example, ‘I.i.5’ means Book I, chapter i, section 5. The Essay is organized into Books, Chapters, and Sections. Otherwise, all material in italics is mine, not Locke’s. Section headings are given in italics, and are Locke’s. Parts and headings are given in bold and are purely my invention.
What follows are what I take to be some of the most important passages from the book, grouped under topical headings in an attempt to make a coherent and systematic whole. As Locke admits, his Essay is something of a mess, from an editorial point of view.