In this book John Dunn shows how Locke arrived at his theory of knowledge, and how the liberal values of toleration and responsible government formed the backbone of enlightened European thought of the eighteenth century. Focusing on the shape of Locke's intellectual life it looks at the two questions which he addressed with such tenacity: 'how Man can know' and 'how Man should try to live'.

John Locke (1632-1704) one of the greatest English philosophers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, argued in his masterpiece, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, that our knowledge is founded in experience and reaches us principally through our senses; but its message has been curiously misunderstood. In this book John Dunn shows how Locke arrived at his theory of knowledge, and how his exposition of the liberal values of toleration and responsible government formed the backbone of enlightened European thought of the eighteenth century.

Review from previous edition 'lucid and lively ... offers a rich insight into the triumphs and tragedy of the source of English ideology'