Del abuso de las palabras

by John Locke

John Locke was one of the greatest figures of the Enlightenment, whose assertion that reason is the key to knowledge changed the face of philosophy. These writings on thought, ideas, perception, truth and language are some of the most influential in the history of Western thought.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics, Essays, Politics, History, 17th Century

126 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1690

About the author

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

John Locke was an English philosopher. He is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally important to social contract theory. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. This influence is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence.

Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin for modern conceptions of identity and "the self", figuring prominently in the later works of philosophers such as David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first Western philosopher to define the self through a continuity of "consciousness." He also postulated that the mind was a "blank slate" or "tabula rasa"; that is, contrary to Cartesian or Christian philosophy, Locke maintained that people are born without innate ideas.

Reviews

[Sreena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong, the man had profound things to say about the relationship between words and ideas. He dissected how ambiguity breeds confusion, how vagueness can be a mask for deceit. I particularly resonated with his warning against using words without clear understanding, a trap I myself have fallen into on more than one occasion. His call for precise and purposeful language struck a chord, urging me to wield words with the care of a jeweler setting a precious stone. The prose was dense.

Who knows, maybe someday I'll even manage to write a review without a single dangling participle! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a thesaurus...💃

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Posted on my book blog.

Background: I am a fan of the Penguin – Great Ideas series of books, so when I saw this book for sale I thought it would be a great opportunity to further my knowledge of philosophy, since I I knew John Locke and his writings only on a very general level.

Review: As you can probably tell by the title, this is mainly a book about epistemology and etymology. He starts by exploring the way ideas are formed by the human mind, and explains how some types of ideas are more liable to error than others. He explains what it means for an idea to be “adequate” or not, on the basis that words will always be liable to mistakes if the ideas they are trying to convey aren’t clear. He goes on to explore language itself, and how it is prone to mistakes (and, eventually, to “disputes”) because men usually believe words to be the thing that they supposedly stand for. Since we mostly learn words before learning about ideas, most of the definitions we have will not be exactly the same everyone else has, and we will be using the same words to signify different things.

The book is interesting but, I must admit, I found it a bit hard to get into, mainly because of the language – some words, specially prepositions, seem to have changed somewhat, which confused a bit. Also, the sentences are unusually long. I suspect this might not be as big a problem for English native speakers as it was for me (I’m fluent in English and quite used to reading in this language, but it’s still not my primary language). If I had read this in Portuguese it would probably have been an easier read.

If you’re interested in philosophy and language than this is definitely an important book to read. Just keep in mind it’s not an easy one.

What’s Next: I have a few others from this collection, though not from a philosopher. It’s a really good-looking collection too (the covers are gorgeous) so I will most definitely keep getting them when I have the chance.

[Renny Doig · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exerpt from a larger work by Locke. The first part was less interesting and was mainly used to described the types of ideas that are necessary for understanding the arguments that followed. The second half of the book was more engaging as it was a bit more concrete. There he emphasizes that the words we use are merely representations of the ideas we want to express and that two people may not mean the same thing by saying the same words. He then goes on to discuss the ways in which this disconnect, if left unaddressed, can create confusion which impedes our capacity for productive discussion.

[Héctor Iván Patricio Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soy lo bastante ignorante de la filosofía para no saber antes de este libro quién es John Locke, pero lo disfruté mucho.
Este escrito cubre desde como las ideas son generadas en nuestros pensamientos y los tipos de ideas que el autor ha examinado y llegado a la conclusión que existen. Es muy interesante leer a un hombre tan inteligente disertar de este tema y sin duda amplió muchísimo mi conocimiento acerca de las ideas en este aspecto y me hizo reflexionar mucho.
La parte de las palabras es el complemento perfecto para esto, la que dice cómo es que comunicamos esas ideas que generamos a los demás y porque muchas veces se súper mal entienden.
Los vicios que adquirimos al hablar me dejan pensando para intentar evitarlos y no caer en ellos en discusiones o pláticas en busca de llegar a un consenso. Me quedo con varias lecciones, para mejorar mi discurso:
- Evitar palabras vacías (palabras de las que se la pronunciación pero no conozco completamente el significado o no se usar en contexto).
- En una discusión o búsqueda de acuerdo y de la verad, más vale definir los términos que discutir sobre algo que de principio está mal establecido.
- Ser constante con el uso de las palabras y su relación con la realidad.

Es un libro que todo persona debería leer, te deja muy buenas cosas en las qué reflexionar y deja lecciones sobre como mejorar la comunicación y los propios pensamientos.

[✮ mads ✮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

as much as i agree with his statements on language (especially since it’s also a prominent interest of mine)… i thought this book to be quite dry.

[Ugur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dil üzerine bir çaba içinde olanların seveceği bir kitap. Her dediği doğru kabul edilemeyecek önermelere sahip bir ve bu önermeler ufuk genişletici. Sorgulamak, konuşmak ve dil üzerine düşünenler göz gezdirmeli.

[Yanisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

i could not understand half the things said

[Belhor Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was immensely interesting.
I find that I've been abusing language! I'll try to retrain myself.
I would recommend this short chapter to everyone.

[Fernando Gallegos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quien tenga nombres sin ideas dirá palabras sin sentido y pronunciara meros sonidos vacíos.

[Will Marler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the most interesting book I've ever read.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't an area I feel particularly passionate about, I find it interesting to dip into from time to time. Locke's book is very good for that, in that it's so carefully broken down, getting to grips with it doesn't require enormous amounts of background knowledge or painstaking analysis. I didn't find a great deal I concurred with (there were several flaws/holes in the argument I couldn't plug), but I had to respect the precision with which the argument was constructed. If I had read this at uni, and had to write about it, I'm sure I would have found the the way every paragraph is labelled with a short description of its contents quite useful. At least it's easy to pinpoint the exact moments the argument goes wrong for you... Besides, I appreciate the fact that it really seems like the text has been streamlined as much as possible, with minimal waffle.

[Rafael Alves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite the subtle book. Took me a while to understand why he was being so clear and talking about his main points so out there in the open of philosophy book but now I see that he wanted to firmly address what he considered to be a big personal issue to Locke.

He talks about his conception of the creation of ideas (he's an empiricist judging by his words) and their classification, then of words as mere signs of ideas rather than ideas themselves, on the abuse of words as goes the titles and ending with some "remedies" to prevent such misuse of language.

Overall, a good read even in spite of his scientific inaccuracy of things that we understand better now but he talks about a lot of things. Dreams, language, morals, ethical discourse and proper argumentation but also the opposite (it being both rhetorical twists as well as improper usage of language)

[Searchingthemeaningoflife Greece · Rating 5 out of 5]

Είναι φανερό το πόσο πολύ οι άνθρωποι αρέσκονται να εξαπατούν και να εξαπατώνται, αφού η ρητορική, αυτό το παντοδύναμο εργαλείο λάθους και δόλου, έχει τους καθιερωμένους επαγγελματίες της, διδάσκεται δημόσια, και πάντοτε έχαιρε μεγάλης φήμης. Και δεν αμφιβάλω ότι θα θεωρηθεί μεγάλο θράσος εκ μέρους μου, αν όχι βαρβαρότητα, το να λέω τόσα πολλά εναντίον της. Η ευγλωττία, όπως το ωραίο φύλο, έχει υπερβολικά εμφανή ομορφιά ώστε να αντέξει οποιαδήποτε κριτική εναντίον της. Και είναι μάταιο να βρίσκεις τα ελαττώματα σ' αυτές τις τέχνες της εξαπάτησης όταν στους ανθρώπους αρέσει τόσο πολύ να εξαπατώνται.

[Ad Estrada · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Locke primero explica cómo se forman nuestras ideas, los tipos diferentes qué hay y porque las ideas más complejas son imperfectas. Luego nos explica porque las palabras no pueden expresar fielmente lo que pensamos y que tendríamos que hacer para que los demás nos entendieran y que muchas discusiones en el mundo se acabarían si antes de empezar a discutir definiéramos los términos que utilizamos en la discusión. No es una lectura tan sencilla, pero vale la pena el esfuerzo.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante. Sobre el lenguaje, las palabras, la comunicación, nuestra percepción de los mensajes... El nombre describe en general la idea.

Está bueno, aunque se siente como un punto medio en varias cosas: casi parece que va a hablar de semiótica, del subconsciente, que se va a poner exitencial... Como que era un paso necesario para que se hablara esos temas más adelante. Ya casi estaba ahí.

Semi-recomendado, te tiene que gustar el tema.

[Valantis Konstantinidis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book devoted to the meaning and significance of words. Although the book is mainly philosophical and not aimed at the common class, it stands quite well over time. Locke divides words into categories and explains each one with clear examples. He then moves on to their abuse and concludes with some advice/solutions. Although as a chapter it is timeless, it does not fully correspond to the knowledge and information of today.

[Michal Paszkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting essay that encourages careful use of words, while keeping to a realist stance. Having just read Wittgenstein, I can see the influence this essay must have had on him, especially the use of "complexes". Modern nominalists should have a read

[Cihan Deniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deneme'den seçilmiş bölümleri içeriyor. İlginç bir şekilde kendi içinde bir bütünlük barındırıyor. Deneme'yi okuduktan hemen sonra okudum, benim için bir nevi özet görevi gördü. Çeviri de iyi.

[William Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ideas flow from sensation, can be compounded into absurdity that obscures our metaphysical discourse due to imprecision and eloquence.

[Dave Chisholm · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone engaging in social discourse. As Locke says, we should have fewer disputs if we have a better shared understanding of the nature of words.

[Catarina PBatista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to read~ understandably so

[elif]

3 gün önce bitirdim ve bu kitap yüzünden sürekli bi kelimenin tanımını yapabilicem mi diye kontrol ediyorum

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5.

[ΑΝΝΑ]

Κρίμα να μην έχει επιλογή μισοδιαβασμενα

[Christopher Gilmour · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe it's the slightly archaic language, but I found this book very difficult and slow to read. Long sentences that invariably daily to hold my attention from beginning to end.
I'm quite well-read, I usually enjoy reading, but this was a struggle. Sure, now I can brag that I've read Locke, but it wasn't worth it.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting excerpt from a treatise about the nature of language and communication. Takes a strongly prescriptivist view of language but argues it well and is mostly engaging and thought-provoking. Although for a book titled “On the misuse of words”, it’s amusing to see such an abuse of the subordinate clause; Locke loves a run-on sentence more than anyone, it seems.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taken from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, these essayes attempt to account for the origin of all our ideas. Its dry and academic in the extreme, but I'm interested in reading more from Locke, but preferably via audiobook.

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading if you have an hour or so spare but this is not a book to be taken lightly

[Liberis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Απόσπασμα -από το ευρύτερο Δοκίμιο περί ανθρώπινης νόησης του 1690- οδηγός για να συνειδητοποιήσουμε γιατί πρέπει να σκεφτόμαστε καθετί που ακούμε αλλά και πόσο προσεχτικοί να είμαστε σε όσα λέμε. Μικρός θησαυρός περί γλώσσας!