ROGER WOOLHOUSE. Locke: A Biography. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xviii, 528. $39.99

Abstract

Roger Woolhouse has written a fine new comprehensive biography of John Locke. Although Locke's political, economic, educational, and religious works were extremely important and influential, Locke was proudest of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689). It is therefore appropriate that this biography is by a philosopher, and that it is at its best in clear, concise, and elegant analyses of Locke's epistemology, while providing good if brief analyses of all of Locke's major works. By discussing the contents of the huge volume of papers and journals composed by Locke, Roger Woolhouse illuminates much about the intellectual origins of many of Locke's major works. A particularly fine sense is communicated of Locke's deep pragmatic interests in natural philosophy and medicine, and of their significant roles in his epistemology. The importance of issues of trade to Locke is delineated, leading to Locke's late in life lament that his head belonged “to a...