An essay concerning human understanding book 1 chapter 1 summary

The author of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding provides a definition of the idea as “a perception that is in our mind when he thinks.” While the quality of the object is “the power or faculty that has to produce a certain idea in mind.”

An Essay concerning human Understanding Book I: innate ideas. In the first book, Locke attacks the doctrine of innate ideas, found in Descartes. This doctrine says that man is born with ideas already formed in the mind, like God, as he argues in his Meditations.

Summary. Book I, "Of Innate Notions," is an attack on the theory that human beings are born knowing certain things. This idea can take one of two basic forms. Either the theory can be one about principles (i.e. statements of fact) or it can be one about ideas (the sort of things that we have names for, such as "God," "blue," or "existence").

Book III has to do with the meanings of words. It includes analysis of general terms, the names of simple ideas, the names of substances, an account of abstract and concrete terms, and a discussion concerning the abuse of words. Book IV treats the subjects of knowledge and probability.