John Locke has some of the best reasons why we should not believe in innate ideas, and from this, why we should not be in agreement with the Rationalists. However, this begs the question "How can we trust ideas based on experience?"



Instead of bogging down his argument, I find that his trust in human experience to be refreshing. We cannot live our lives sitting in a room thinking about the random crap in the world -- we have to get out there and live it!



This particular edition was a different one from the rest of the class that I took, and I found that most of the text matched up word for word, however it was off when it came to chapter numbers, which confused me a bit -- how could the "complete" edition lack a chapter or two? I'm sure, though, that if I actually spent the time to worry about this, I would have figured out the problem.



Overall, this is a great text of one of the most important thinkers for American democracy. Locke, therefore, should be read whether you agree with him or not. (If, of course, you are American. If not, read him because he has some pretty interesting things to say.)