主に17世紀後半に活躍したイギリスの偉大な哲学者ジョン・ロック（1632-1704年）。知識は経験に基づき、感覚を通して獲得されるとした『人間知性論』を著し、イギリス経験論を完成させたことで知られています。本書はロックが知識の理論に到達した道筋をたどるとともに、18世紀のヨーロッパ思想を啓発した背景にあるロック寛容論を紹介します。人はどう知ることができるのか、また人はどう生きようとすべきか。ロックが強くこだわった問いを改めて見つめ直します。(cf. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Oxford World's Classics); Second Treatise of Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration (Oxford World's Classics))
   

• 'lucid and lively ... offers a rich insight into the triumphs and tragedy of the source of English ideology' New Society
• Written by the leading authority on Locke
• Insightful and lively, unravels the meaning of Locke's political thought

John Locke (1632-1704) one of the greatest English philosophers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, argued in his masterpiece, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, that our knowledge is founded in experience and reaches us principally through our senses; but its message has been curiously misunderstood. In this book John Dunn shows how Locke arrived at his theory of knowledge, and how his exposition of the liberal values of toleration and responsible government formed the backbone of enlightened European thought of the eighteenth century.