New Essays on Human Understanding
New Essays on Human Understanding (French: Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain) is a chapter-by-chapter rebuttal by Gottfried Leibniz of John Locke's major work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. It is one of only two full-length works by Leibniz (the other being the Theodicy). It was finished in 1704 but Locke's death was the cause alleged by Leibniz to withhold its publication. The book appeared some sixty years later.[1] Like many philosophical works of the time, it is written in dialogue form.
Overview
The two speakers in the book are Theophilus ("loving God" in Greek),[2] who represents the views of Leibniz, and Philalethes ("loving truth" in Greek),[3] who represents those of Locke. The famous rebuttal to the empiricist thesis about the provenance of ideas appears at the beginning of Book II: "Nothing is in the mind without being first in the senses, except for the mind itself".[4]
Editions
- New Essays on Human Understanding, Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-57660-1.
See also
References
- ↑ Oeuvres philosophiques, latines et françoises, de feu Mr. de Leibnitz, tirées de ses manuscrits, qui se conservent dans la bibliothèque royale à Hanovre, et publiees par Rud. Eric Raspe, Amsterdam et Leipzig, 1765.
- ↑ "θεόφιλος". LSJ.
- ↑ "φιλαλήθης". LSJ.
- ↑ Book II, Ch. 1, §2: "Nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit in sensu excipe: nisi ipse intellectus".
Sources
- Leibniz, Akademie-Ausgabe (1999): Vol. VI, 6
External links
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French Wikisource has original text related to this article: Nouveaux Essais sur l'entendement humain - New Essays on Human Understanding Langley translation 1896
- John Dewey, Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding – A Critical Exposition, 1888
- The New Essays, slightly modified for easier reading
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