Locke and William Molyneux

Between Secularization and Reform, 2022

William Molyneux 's attitude to John Locke , as demonstrated by their correspondence, might appear to be that of a fawning acolyte: on the face of it, Molyneux's reverence at times leaves him almost prostrate. Certainly, Locke makes important changes to the Essay Concerning Human Understanding as a direct result of Molyneux's queries. Nonetheless, reading Molyneux's own account, there is no mistaking the seniority of Locke: in 1694, for example, Molyneux declares that "a man of greater candour and humanity [than Locke] there moves not on the face of the earth."1 Three years later, Molyneux tells Locke (on 17th Sept. 1697) about the portrait of him (Locke) that hangs in his dining room in Dublin-and also that Robert Molesworth is wont to call by in order to "pay his Devotion"!2 (Even allowing for the exaggerated conventions of epistolary discourse, this depiction of philosophical worship remains strikingly strange.) Despite the genuine reverence evidenced here, closer analysis of the Locke-Molyneux correspondence regarding the very particular case of John Toland , and the events and misadventures that characterized Toland's sojourn in Dublin in 1697, reveal a di�ferent aspect to Molyneux's attitude. As I want to show in this chapter, it seems that Molyneux refused to accept the "abandonment" of Toland that Locke more or less commands; moreover, he sought to defend Toland , in part, upon the basis of Locke's own philosophical-political principles-thereby showing himself to be (on this occasion, at least) more Lockean than Locke himself. To make this case, I begin by providing some wider biographical and contextual information about both Molyneux and Toland. I then outline, ��rst, the way in which Toland's most famous (or infamous) text, Christianity Not Mysterious, 1 See the autobiographical account that William Molyneux provides, in Capel Molyneux, An Account of the Family and Descendents of Sir Thomas Molyneux (Evesham: 1820), 78. (William) Molyneux also states, in the same paragraph, that "no age has seen a more admirable piece" than Locke's Essay.

Abstract: The philosopher William King, Archbishop of Dublin, (1650-1729) has been characterized as a Lockean from after his death to the present time. However, the premise of this categorization stems from an initial misconception popularized shortly after the prelates’ death. The following analysis of King’s works and his responses to Locke’s Essay will illustrate the erroneous and redundant notion of King’s Lockeanism. Beginning with Edmund Law’s translation of King’s greatest work De Origine Mali, a steady tradition has developed between the identification of King with Locke. From this initial specious premise other authors up to modern times have followed suit and accepted this assumption. This discussion seeks to justify William King’s philosophical originality and focus on King’s own rejection of fundamental Lockean principles.

Locke Studies , 2023

This article presents some overlooked evidence on the reception of John Locke's writings at Christ Church, Oxford. It is intended to supplement a new article in the History of Universities on the surprisingly positive response to Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) at that bastion of late seventeenth-century high churchmanship. This evidence sheds new light on: the reception of Epicureanism at that college in the 1650s; Locke's personal connections at Christ Church; book-holdings of Locke's writings at the early eighteenth-century college; some unnoticed uses of Locke's writings by members of Christ Church; the European and North American reception of one Christ Church Lockean; and, the changing trajectory of the later eighteenth-century reception of Locke at that college.

Oxford. L e Clerc mentions, that his very early friends and companions were selected from amongst the lively and agreeable, rather than the learned of his time; and that the correspondence with which he frequently amused himself with them, had a resemblance in style and expression t c the French of Voiture, although perhaps not so finished and refined as that of the French author. His letters on Toleration, and his replies to the Bishop of Worcester, show liis force of argument, and his powers of wit and irony, confined always within the bounds of the most perfect civility and decorum. The earliest of Locke7s printed works is the Essay on Human Understanding: the original copy, in his own handwriting, dated 1671, is still preserved, and I find the first sketch of that work in his Commonplace Book, beginning thus :-16 TIIE LIFE 01: JOHN LOCRE.

Metascience, 2013

A. J. Pyle’s Locke is an excellent introduction to Locke’s philosophical thought as a whole. The guiding principle of the book is that Locke’s diverse philosophical writings on epistemology, metaphysics, religion, politics, and education are all unified by the basic thesis that ‘we humans have been given enough knowledge for our needs’ (3). Considering an impressive range of issues and texts, Pyle presents Locke as a deeply systematic thinker who still has much to say that is of interest to contemporary readers.The book is organised thematically. Chapter 1 provides an engaging account of Locke’s life and times, emphasising the importance of the political and religious context of seventeenth-century Britain to what might seem to modern readers like largely unrelated concerns in epistemology and metaphysics. Chapter 2 introduces Locke’s theory of ideas, his theologically controversial attack on nativism in Book I of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and outlines the broad shape of

A calm, gentle man with a curious mind and a desire for knowledge and wisdom, English philosopher and physician John Locke became the leading figure in British Empiricism whose political theories helped lay the foundations of liberal democracy. Today we can see his ideas reflected in the American Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. John Locke was influenced by the thinking of the Scientific Revolution. He was trained in science, philosophy, and medicine, of which the last he practiced throughout his lifetime. Locke's father was a Puritan, and on the side of Parliament. Locke became a physician and his Patron was Shaftsbury. He fled to Holland when Shaftsbury fled in 1684. Before the Revolution of 1688, he composed his "Essay on the Human Understanding." This he did when he could not take part in English politics of the day. He can be treated as the father of philosophical liberalism. The British constitution until fifty years ago was based on his political doctrines. 1

International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2019

Locke’s influential discussion of agency in the chapter ‘Of Power’ in the Essay Concerning Human Understanding underwent important changes between the first and second edition. He reconsidered many of his central claims about the mind’s deliberation about actions. Locke’s position in the two editions is not only different but, as he himself points out, sometimes incompatible. This has suggested to some commentators that his change of mind was at least partly due to an external influence. Locke himself gestures towards this conclusion in the new ‘Epistle’ in the second edition Essay. One view is that William Molyneux was a notable influence, while another position is that Ralph Cudworth’s work on free will, either directly or indirectly through the influence of his daughter Damaris Masham, was an important influence. The position I develop in this paper is that the strongest candidate for an important external influence on Locke’s second edition revision is Molyneux’s close associate and friend, Irish philosopher and Archbishop of Dublin, William King. I argue that King’s criticism is a plausible influence on Locke’s reconceptualization of will and desire. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, King’s criticism appears to have been instrumental in Locke’s new emphasis on the agent’s capacity to determine what to value.

History of Universities, 2023

This article demonstrates that numerous high church clergymen at Christ Church, Oxford, engaged positively with John Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding (1689). They indicated their approval of his philosophy by securing copies of his writings for personal and college libraries, corresponding with him, teaching the Essay to students, and, most importantly, publishing several reworkings of his thought. The ways in which these Christ Church men reinterpreted the Essay, moreover, influenced how Locke’s moral theology was read later in the eighteenth century within French Huguenot circles, Cambridge, and the Dissenting academies. Uncovering these largely overlooked Lockean afterlives, therefore, not only reveals new intellectual and institutional contexts for the Essay’s reception but also demonstrates that particular places of education reshaped the published debates around Locke’s thought.