Key Facts
full title · Some Thoughts Concerning Education
author · John Locke
philosophical movement · None, though his political liberalism and his Empiricism influenced much of what he says about education.
language · English
time and place written · Locke never set out to write a book on education. Some Thoughts Concerning Education is actually derived from a collection of letters that Locke wrote to his friend Edward Clarke between the years 1684 and 1691. He wrote most of the letters while in exile in Holland, and the rest in London.
date of first publication · Some Thoughts Concerning Education was published in July of 1693.
speaker · John Locke
areas of philosophy covered · Though the book is concerned primarily with education, Locke does touch on some issues surrounding moral philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and natural philosophy.
philosophical movements opposed · If any group can be seen as Locke's opponent on the subject of education, it is the scholatics who ran the schools of Europe.
other works by locke on similar topics · Some Thoughts Concerning Education is the only book that Locke wrote on the subject of education. For more on Locke's political philosophy it is best to read the Second Treatise of Government. His moral philosophy can be found in the Essays Moral and Political . The Essay Concerning Human Understanding is his only work on epistemology and natural philosophy.
