Locke

by Michael Ayers

Genres: Philosophy

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Michael Richard Ayers (born 1935) is a British philosopher and professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the history of philosophy and on epistemology, metaphysics and language.

Reviews

[Semeiotickled · Rating 3 out of 5]

The brevity of this volume shouldn't be taken as an indication of accessibility: this is neither a "Dummies' Guide To", nor "A Very Short Introduction To". Ayers quotes copiously from Locke, but this does little to help the reader who may be as unfamiliar with the field of philosophy as he or she may be with 17th-century English. Ayers' own prose being nearly as dense as Locke's, one is left with the impression that the former's priorities revolve around explicitation and contextualisation, with the effective communication of ideas coming in a distant third place, if it all. To the student of philosophy, "Ideas And Things" will, no doubt, contain some worthy insights. For the layman and the casual reader, looking for an overview and a general understanding: caveat lector.