File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_1996/96-09-09.212, message 6


Date: 29 Jul 96 02:54:20 EDT
From: Chris Burford <100423.2040-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Locke on the under-labourer


I liked the way John Mage quoted the passage
>from Locke containing the concept of the under-labourer.

So the concept is English false modesty!

And if philosophy is "nothing but the true knowledge of 
things", how  could anyone wish to claim greater omniscience?

John's biographical note refers to the activities of Locke alongside
other men of learning of the new bourgeoisie, prepared to 
challege absolute authority whether in politics or in learning.

John's suggestion that Locke's sentence might be submitted to
a contest, prompts one to wonder how much Bhaskar admired or even
modelled himself on Locke.  I thought Locke's sentence was 
excessively long but also elegant. 

The elegance of Bhaskar's preface also struck me since I have
been in trepidation of getting immersed in him.

The passage from Locke reminds us that in the sixteenth century 
books were written as much for reading out aloud as reading 
silently. A long sentence with suitable emphasis of voice and
breath control, is more intelligible. (Is Bhaskar more intelligible
read out loud?) One can also see that in polite bourgeois society
of the seventeenth century one had to negotiate one's place
with customary modesty, and effective assertiveness. 

In reality I cannot imagine that Locke did not know he had done
so successfully, and was the peer of people like Sydenham,
Boyle and Newton.

In conclusion therefore  the main thing I draw from John's reference to 
Locke's foundation passage is the modest grandeur of the claim to 
be an under-labourer.

I like it.

Chris Burford
London





   

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