An Essay on Human Understanding

In An Essay concerning Human Understanding written by John Locke there is a focus on physical objects and the interpretation of such objects in the human mind. In the text Locke takes a full empiricist point of view and argues that ideas or perception are created from our own experience with objects. He projects the human mind as being just as a blank page, void of intelligence before sensations and experiences. In reviewing the first paragraph of the text on can notice that Locke makes it clear that there is indeed a connection between objects and their perceptions in our mind. Locke stresses that everything we come to acknowledge in the physical world is derived from ideas of sensation, for without the use of senses we are unable to connect the object with the mind. We learn things through experience and in the event that one comes in contact with the exact object again a name can be used. Names are also a very important factor that one might pay close attention to when analyzing Locke’s idea of human understanding. After an individual has used senses whether it be sight, touch, sound etc. after one’s mind has conceived ideas and perceptions of that physical object it is then given a name. In analyzing Locke’s essay it can be noted that he explains the knowledge process in somewhat of a chain reaction effect. The name gives an identity to objects after we have encountered the said object, and we have come to know its characteristics by use of our senses. The human mind tends to depend greatly on the use of our senses in order to have clear perceptions of what an object really is. Locke strongly suggests in his writings that we develop knowledge and names for objects through our experiences and interactions with objects and our senses; Plato’s rationalistic view however disagrees. Plato has the understanding that humans are born with knowledge, he had the concept that perceptions were caused by images and they existed in the intelligible world.