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The Political Thought of John Locke Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2012
Some men are shrewd guessers, and others would be thought to be so: but he must be carried far by his forward inclination, who does not take notice, that the world is apt to think him a diviner, for any thing rather than for the sake of truth, who sets up his own suspicions against the direct evidence of things; and pretends to know other mens thoughts and reasons, better than they themselves.
John Locke (A Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity from Mr Edwards' Reflections, Works (1768), 111, 107)There are always a number of different historical arcs on which it is appropriate to place any complex intellectual performance in the effort to disclose its ‘meaning’. The choice of the appropriate are is neither a simple nor an arbitrary matter but it plainly does depend to a considerable extent on the purposes of the historian. The set of possible contexts which would be needed to exhibit the full meaning of Locke's intellectual life is so vast that there is no significant possibility that anyone will ever be competent to grasp them all and, should such a paragon of learning and imagination exist, it is a little difficult to believe that he would choose to devote his talents to the elucidation of the intellectual achievement of John Locke.
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