Knowledge and Property in John Locke

Abstract

In this paper, an analysis is performed on the concepts of knowledge and property employed by John Locke to demonstrate the possibility of attaining certainties in moral knowledge and to legitimise private property. His thought was characterised by his desire to trace a connection between the moral, intellectual and material worlds, for the purpose of establishing methodological grounds for a true knowledge of practical principles. Inquiring into the processes of knowledge and into the motivational workings of human behaviour, the English philosopher arrived at the conclusion that thanks to the exercise of his knowledge and will, man acquires, with effort, the ownership of his person and the external world surrounding him, and is capable of attaining knowledge of the content of natural law with a certainty as absolute as that deriving from mathematical knowledge.