An Essay concerning Human Understanding

IT is possible to appreciate the reason for this abridged edition of Locke's great Essay and at the same time to regret its appearance. If it had to be done, no living philosopher is so qualified to do it well as Prof. Pringle-Pattison. It is issued for academic reasons and appeals to academic purposes. Every teacher of philosophy knows that it is useless and undesirable to expect the student to read the whole work intensively as he must read, say, Spinoza's “Ethics” or Kant's “Critique of Pure Reason” if he would understand those philosophers. Locke is prolix and also a large part of the Essay has lost the interest and influence it had. On the other hand, nothing is easier than to direct the student as to what is important and what comparatively negligible. Abridgments are unwise. However well-informed, it is certain, for it is human nature, that the reader will suspect that something of importance has escaped or been suppressed.An Essay concerning Human Understanding.JohnLockeBy. Abridged and edited by A. S. Pringle-Pattison. Pp. xlviii + 380. (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1924.) 8s. 6d. net.