An Essay concerning Humane Understanding.

London: by Eliz. Holt, for Thomas Basset,, 1690. One of the principal sources of empiricism in modern philosophy First edition, first issue, with the Holt imprint. Locke worked for nearly two decades on his investigation of "the certainty and the adequacy of human knowledge" (PMM), and the resulting landmark work influenced many Enlightenment philosophers. Locke argued that all our knowledge comes from experience and through our senses, rather than innate ideas. The mind is at birth a clean sheet, a tabula rasa; since only material things can affect our sense, we can know nothing but matter and must accept a materialistic philosophy. Locke concluded that "though knowledge must necessarily fall short of complete comprehension, it can at least be 'sufficient'; enough to convince us that we are not at the mercy of pure chance, and can to some extent control our own destiny" (ODNB). Locke's Essay quickly ran to several editions and was popularized on the continent through French translations. "Few books in the literature of philosophy have so widely represented the spirit of the age and country in which they appeared, or have so influenced opinion afterwards. The art of education, political thought, theology and philosophy, especially in Britain, France and America, long bore the stamp of the Essay, or of reaction against it" (Grolier). Voltaire and Diderot accepted Locke with little question, Hume and Kant continued the investigation, and Bishop Berkeley rejected it with his own immaterialism. The edition was reissued with a cancel title bearing an Edward Mory imprint. Provenance: inscription to front free endpaper "Robert Kirktowne London: 1698" (a Robert Kirktowne is recorded as a naval surgeon in the period), 18th-century inscription to the front pastedown "Ex libris Gulielmi Byrd MTS". This is possibly William Byrd II (1674-1744), a large landowner in Virginia who studied at Middle Temple in London, explaining the MTS (Middle Temple School) initials. Folio (318 x 192 mm). Contemporary speckled calf, red morocco label, covers bordered in blind, edges speckled red. 19th-century shelf label at head of spine. Skilful restoration at extremities, leaf D2 with defective inner margin resulting in a number of missing words, supplied in manuscript in early hand. A few splashes and scratches to covers else well-preserved, contents a little toned else clean: a very good copy. Attig 228; ESTC R22993; Garrison-Morton 4967; Grolier English 36; Grolier One Hundred 72; Pforzheimer 599; Printing and the Mind of Man 164; Hook & Norman 1380; Wing L-2738; Yolton 61A.