Locke, Literary Criticism, and Philosophy (Cambridge Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Thought)

William Walker's analysis of John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding offers a challenging and provocative assessment of Locke's importance as a thinker, bridging the gap between philosophical and literary-critical discussion of his work. He is revealed as a crucial figure for emerging modernity, less the familiar empiricist innovator and more a proto-Nietzschean thinker. Walker's reading of Locke is finely attentive to the text and resourceful in placing the Essay in its broadest philosophical and historical context.