An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding.

£3,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

lifetime edition with contemporary annotations for the fourth edition The third edition of John Locke's (1632-1704) major philosophical work, an excellent lifetime example with contemporary annotations and notes in pen for the fourth edition published in 1700. The Essay Concerning Human Understanding seeks to explain how it is that we as humans acquire our ideas and knowledge. In it, Locke refutes the suggestion of rationalist philosophers like Descartes that man is born with some form of innate understanding, instead famously describing the mind as a 'white paper' (i.e. blank slate) 'void of all Characters, without any Ideas' which is then filled through sensory experience (p.41). As such, the text is considered one of the primary sources of empiricism in early modern philosophy. With contemporary manuscript annotations to the margins inserting the additions which were incorporated into the fourth edition of the text published in 1700, and correcting errors. These include (in italics): p.17 (Book I, Chap. III, 5) '...the highest perfection of humane Nature, to do otherwise'; p.18 (Book I, Chap. III, 8) '...nothing else, but our own Opinion or judgement of the moral rectitude or pravity of our own actions'; p.33 (Book I, Chap. IV, 16) 'angles' for 'Angels'; p.93 (Book II, Chap. XIV, 5) 'Durtaion' for 'Duration'; and p.190 (Book II, Chap. XXVII, 29) inserting the extensive anecdote of Prince Maurice and his Brazilian parrot. Third edition; folio (33 x 21 cm); engraved portrait

• Binding: Hardcover

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