Books

[Philosophy] FIRST EDITION of the collected works. 3 volumes; Folio (32 x 21cm). Engraved frontispiece portrait and engraved leaf bound before the 'To The Reader' notice. Includes The Life of Locke, published by Clarke of Fleet Street, 1714 (in its third edition, enlarged). Armorial bookplate just visible beneath a pasted-over covering. Contents clean, small wormhole to margin of vol.II [up to Aaa2], not affecting text, starting as a longer trail to prelims, with five leaves showing a vintage paper repair to same, some other neat old repaired tears in places, generally fresh within. Binding expertly repaired to joints and endcaps. A pleasing copy in an attractive contemporary binding. "In political, religious, educational and philosophical thought he inspired the leading minds of England, France, America and, to some extent, Germany He laid the groundwork for a new empiricism and advanced the claims for experimentalism. Voltaire, Montesquieu and the French Encyclopedists found in Locke the philosophical, political, educational and moral basis that enabled them to prepare and advance the ideas which eventuated in the French Revolution. In America, his influence on Jonathan Edwards, Hamilton and Jefferson was decisive His works prepared the ground for action as well as thought" (Edwards IV:502).

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a work by John Locke concerning the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. It first appeared in 1690.