John Locke, Thoughts Concerning Education

Mark Goldie (University of Cambridge)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Domains

Education
Philosophy (any)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1693

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Treatise

Resources

In the eighteenth century Locke's Thoughts Concerning Education was as widely read as his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and probably more so than his Two Treatises of Government. The book appealed to parents grown suspicious of the drudge Latinity of the grammar schools and the clerical pedantry of the universities. Published in 1693, Some Thoughts was dedicated to his friend the Whig MP Edward Clarke, for whom it had been drafted in a series of private letters from 1684 onwards. Locke amended successive editions until the fifth, which appeared in 1705. The book concerns the education of gentlemen's sons, aiming to “produce virtuous, useful, and able men in their distinct callings”. Locke assumes a…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1183 words

Citation: Goldie, Mark. "Thoughts Concerning Education". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 June 2003 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8308, accessed 24 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here