BRIEF ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT RARE COPY OF JOHN LOCKE'S "HUMAN UNDERSTANDING"

BRIEF ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT RARE COPY OF JOHN LOCKE’S “HUMAN UNDERSTANDING”

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© December 4, 2010

REFERENCE:

Readers appear curious about this book that author William L. Livingston IV has given me as a gift. I will attempt to answer some of these questions here briefly.

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WHO WAS JOHN LOCKE (1632 – 1704)?

He was English and one of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment, so called because it was the age of ideas. His influence down through the years has been immense. He was a medical doctor and philosopher and had great impact on political thinkers and the nature of knowledge. It is difficult to imagine the American and French Revolutions without him. He had great influence on our Founding Fathers, especially Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams and Franklin. You can feel his presence in every word of the Declaration of Independence as he broke with the past and developed the concept of identity, and the self. You can see his influence in European thinkers such as Hume, Kant, Voltaire and Rousseau, but also in such Americans as Emerson, Thoreau, Williams and the poetry of Walt Whitman. Emerson’s “self-reliance” is quintessential Locke, as the Englishman believed that knowledge is determined from experience and perception, and that no one is born with inherent ideas.

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DESCRIBE THE BOOK

The title on the binding is HUMAN then followed by UNDER then below that STANDIN and on the fourth line G.

It is a book 12 ½ by 8 inches. The pages are yellowed, but hardly frayed but with some moisture or water damage.

The hard front cover is missing, as is the title page and the copyright page.

The first page is titled, “The Epiftle Dedicatory” and has the designation as page “b”.” It is frayed and torn, and the backside of the page ends in, “My Lord, Your Lordfhips Moft Humble, and Obedient Servant, JOHN LOCKE.” At the bottom of the page under LOCKE is simply THE.

Page b2 is titled, “THE EPISTLE TO THE READER. It appears THE of the previous page goes with Reader on b2.

ERRATA (or errors) follow which are indicated, and then THE CONTENTS in BOOK I, II, III, and IV.

This is followed by THE CONTENTS in which each section is delineated as to what it covers.

On page 407, badly frayed, the last word is FINIS (the end)

The INDEX follows, which is badly frayed and ends with an incomplete “S” section.

The back cover is detached and badly warped.

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HOW OLD DO YOU THINK THE BOOK IS?

Only an antiquarian could assess that. I would imagine it could be anywhere from 100 to 300 years old. I doubt seriously if it is less than that.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BOOK IS WORTH?

Again, an antiquarian could determine that.

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ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SELLING IT?

Absolutely not.

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WHAT IS YOUR INTEREST?

I would like to know how to care for it properly, and to feel I would do it no harm by perusing its pages.

Anyone that can assist me in this interest would be appreciated.

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WHY WOULD AUTHOR LIVINGSTON GIVE YOU SUCH A GIFT?

You have to ask him. I sense that he knew I would appreciate it, plus he is a very generous person of his knowledge, expertise, and material possessions. In other words, he is a person that epitomizes the ideas of John Locke in this book.

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