- Focused on empirical observation as the basis for truth
- "Locke's philosophy, which follows Bacon and the experimental scientists, searches for truth in the physical world and attempts to understand knowledge as a psychological phenomenon. This perspective stands opposed to the traditional doctrines of received truth, innate ideas, and the presumption that direct knowledge is available through revelation or perception" (814).
- Held that sensation generates universal simple ideas to which we give arbitrary word designations. Complex ideas are based on relationships among simple ones, and can be ambiguous and perhaps unknowable.
- Potential resonance with Augustine's notion of signs pointing to an indescribable real
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