Kudos to Kory Swanson for spotting this interesting review of a new monograph, John Locke at the Ethics of Belief.
For those familiar with Locke primarily as a political philosopher, the work in question discusses at some length the other important ideas that Locke struggled with in his day, ideas about how human beings learn (epistemology) and how, or whether, they can understand the origins and purpose of the created world (metaphysics). Recoiling from the bloody religious conflicts of the 17th century, Locke questioned the use of tradition as the sole or primary guide for identifying truth:
Locke indeed breaks with tradition and instead enlists Reason as our primary agent of thinking?that’s what makes him modern. More particularly, the medieval mind’s regard for tradition, its assumption that rationality itself consists essentially in the study and appropriation of tradition, has brought misery to Europe. . .
Locke thinks that most people in the past, who thus formulated the tradition we inherit, did not govern their beliefs properly. They foolishly took onboard all sorts of dubious and even pernicious ideas without submitting them to the scrutiny of critical reason. Worse, they then elevated various versions of this mish-mash to the level of dogma, and proceeded to fight religious wars over them.
As one says in the blogosphere, read the whole thing.
