Renaissance philosophy of language severed the Scholastic bond between the study of logic and the study of language and instead turned to the pragmatic and rhetorical dimensions of natural languages. Locke continues along this path by disparaging the relevance of logic to understanding the structure of mind and language. Locke's primary achievement, however, was to unite the study of language with the study of the human understanding, particularly its cognitive capacities. This new relationship immediately fostered new approaches in the philosophy of language. The two approaches that define the evolution of the philosophy of language in the modern period are due to Leibniz (1646–1716) and Condillac (1715–1780). Both philosophers recognized the significance of Locke's turn to language in the Essay, but they aimed to improve upon the Essay in distinct ways: Leibniz by reconnecting natural language, including ordinary usage, to an underlying logic, and Condillac by highlighting language as a human action.

Leibniz and Locke

Soon after the first publication of Locke's Essay in 1690, Leibniz wrote some comments on it and in 1696 asked Thomas Burnett to give them to Locke. Burnett delivered them almost a year later, but Locke had already received a copy of the comments from another source. Locke never responded to Leibniz, except indirectly in June 1704 when Locke, very ill and four months away from his death, asked Lady Masham to apologize for not writing back (Leibniz 1960, 3:351).