Overview: In An Essay concerning Human Understanding, John Locke sets out his theory of knowledge and how we acquire it. Eschewing doctrines of innate principles and ideas, Locke shows how all our ideas, even the most abstract and complex, are grounded in human experience and attained by sensation of external things or reflection upon our own mental activities. A thorough examination of the communication of ideas through language and the conventions of taking words as signs of ideas paves the way for his penetrating critique of the limitations of ideas and the extent of our knowledge of ourselves, the world, God, and morals.

Introduction -- Locke's life and writing -- Essay concerning human understanding -- Book 1 and 2: Ideas and Principles -- Book 3: Language and abstraction -- Book 4: Knowledge -- Reception and Legacy -- Note on the text -- Select bibliography -- Chronology of John Locke -- Essay Concerning Human Understanding -- Appendix: Extracts from Locke's letter to Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester -- Explanatory notes -- Index.