An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1

An eye can reveal the world and still remain blind to itself. John Locke turns that puzzle inward: what can the mind learn when it makes its own understanding the object of inquiry?

Writing in 1690, Locke sets out to trace how the mind acquires its ideas—and where its power to know reaches its limit. Around him, people hold fiercely to opinions that contradict one another; their certainty, he suggests, may outrun what they can truly know. He offers a bracing alternative to both endless dispute and despair: measure the mind’s reach, and learn when to seek knowledge, when to judge by probability, and when to accept the dark beyond. Like a sailor who knows the length of his sounding line, how far can we venture without mistaking confidence for truth?

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