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Named source · 1690

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I Quotes by John Locke: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I by or associated with John Locke, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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John Locke’s 1690 inquiry into the origin, extent and limits of human knowledge

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Knowledge, belief, intellectual limits, judgment, inquiry, certainty, education and responsible use of the understanding.

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“Our business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.”

Locke places useful limits around intellectual ambition: human inquiry need not comprehend everything in order to guide life well, and knowing where understanding stops is part of using it responsibly.

Source note: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Book I, Chapter I, section 6, Project Gutenberg #10615.