#JustGetToThePointAlready (Blogpost 4)

Have you ever read something before and it seems that the author just rambled on and on, but have failed to convey their main point(s)? I have read many works where this was the case and, I’ll admit, I have been guilty of adding fluff to my writing. Why is it that people do this? If you were to ask John Locke, he would have a lot to say concerning this.

To understand Locke’s argument within his work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, one must first understand John Locke, himself. John Locke (1632-1704) was a man widely known for being in thought, analyzing his own thoughts and then, from these thoughts, making analyses based on the world around him. He was a believer in the theory that “…a critical analysis of the ideas in an individual mind could lead straight to a rule about adequate ideas in general and the sort of subject where adequate ideas were possible” (2279). In other words, Locke believed that in analyzing one’s own thoughts and ideas, that person will notice that we are more united than divided. Locke was a threat to religious and scientific sectors, social order, and many other facets of life because of his emphasis on freeing one’s self through one’s thoughts.

Now we can get to his essay! In this essay, Locke is urging his readers to stand out and think for themselves. Locke is encouraging people to think critically, but also to form their own ideas and opinions concerning what they experience. In doing this, Locke is attempting to spark within his readers a desire to research and figure things out for themselves! Rather than blindly following the masses, thinking for one’s self causes them stand out! Locke argues that “…Understanding … is the most elevated faculty of the soul, so it is employed with a greater and more constant delight than any of the other” (2280). The understanding that Locke is speaking about is human understanding and what we should be attempting to understand, according to Locke, is our own ways of thinking. In discouraging one’s own way of thinking, the person “…makes some discovery, which is not only new, but the best, too, for the time at least” (2280).

When we get down to the core of Locke’s argument, he is saying that our way of communicating our thoughts should be simplistic, or as he puts it “’determinate or determined’” (2282). There is no need for big, elaborate words and long drawn out explanations that end up saying absolutely nothing at all. Locke is arguing that we get straight to the point. To think clearly, or to communicate clearly, is to get to the point. Locke states that while most people assume that they are “clear and distinct”, “…everyone who uses [these descriptions] does not perfectly understand [what it means to be clear and distinct] (2282).

I stated above that Locke posed a threat to different sectors of the society, namely those who follow religion and those who follow science. Locke states, “[t]he Commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master-builders, whose mighty designs in advancing, the sciences will leave lasting monuments to the admiration of posterity” (2281). Locke is saying that during that time, everyone was attempting to argue things which are absolute, but that no one has taken the time to delve into thoughts. Here, Locke is directly challenging notions that have been considered absolute, such as religion and science. In the end, Locke wants his readers to think about what we want to say before we say it because words are only a way to physically explain what it is that we saw and then processed with our own mind.

THINK FOR YOURSELF!











Sources:

• Greenblatt, Stephen, and M.H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. W.W. Norton, 2012.
• History.com Staff. “John Locke.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/john-locke.
• Locke, John. “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” Edited by Sivakumari Supramaniam, CORE, University of Waikato, 1 Jan. 1970, core.ac.uk/display/29202863.