Philosophy

Abstract

The extracts in this section engage with some of the fundamental philosophical issues of the Romantic period, especially the question of the relation of the self to the world. John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690, extract 5.1) remained a key text in this respect and underpinned Enlightenment theories of knowledge. Locke argues that the mind has no innate ideas or principles but is like a tabula rasa — a blank slate — which is written upon by experience. All ideas are the product of experience, though the mind does play a role in the transformation of sensation and perception into sophisticated ideas and abstract concepts. Locke’s account of this process was developed by David Hartley in his Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty, and His Expectations (1749; extract 5.2), in which he analysed in detail how primary sensations become associated together to produced all ideas and emotions.KeywordsRomantic PeriodMoral SentimentNatural EducationCreative PowerBlank SlateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.