hopelessly contradictory. Then it was that Kant brought forward 

 his critiques, in which, by means of a more adequate method, he 

 was able to suggest both the fallacy and the truth of the two oppos- 

 ing schools. Before, however, considering the validity of the 

 attempt at reconciliation which Kant made, it will be well to follow 

 out the thread of English Empiricism to its ultimate conclusions, 

 to see how significant was the result attained by this standpoint. 



John Locke, the successor in England of Thomas Hobbes, may 

 be regarded as the formulator of English Empiricism. Perplexed 

 by certain difficulties in the domain of religious beliefs, Locke found 

 it necessary, as he thought, to make an examination into the human 

 understanding in order to discover with what objects it is fitted to 

 deal. His book "On the Human Understanding" is the result, the 

 purpose of which is "to inquire into the original, certainty, and 

 extent of human knowledge together with the grounds and degrees 

 of belief, opinion, and assent." 1 In pursuing this task, he follows a 

 threefold method 2 ; first, he inquires into the origin of ideas, meaning 

 thereby "the notions or whatever else you please to call them, 

 which a man observes and is conscious to himself he has in his 

 mind"; and the ways whereby the understanding comes to be 

 furnished with them. Secondly, he endeavours to show what is the 

 certainty, evidence, and extent of the knowledge so obtained, and 

 thirdly, he makes some inquiries into the nature and grounds of 

 faith or opinion. Whence comes the mind then to be furnished 

 with its ideas? Whence has it all the materials of reason and know- 

 ledge? To these questions Locke gives the answer, from experience. 

 In that, all our knowledge is founded and from that it "ultimately 

 derives itself". "Our observation, employed either about external, 

 sensible objects or about the internal operation of our minds, per- 

 ceived and reflected on by ourselves, is that which supplies our 

 understandings with all the materials-of thinking." 3 In experience, 

 then, there are two kinds of simple ideas; these he calls ideas of 

 sensation and ideas of reflection. To express it in the rather crude 

 language of Locke, the senses convey into the mind from external 

 objects simple ideas which may be compounded by the mind into 

 complex ideas. On the other hand, when the mind "turns its view 



1 Op. Cit. Book I, Ch. I, Par. 2. 



2 Ibid., Par. 3. 



1 Book II, Ch. 1, Par. 2. 



79 



