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99-845: The Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) is a non-profit organization based on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia . Founded as a library in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin , the Library Company of Philadelphia has accumulated one of the most significant collections of historically valuable manuscripts and printed material in the United States. The current collection size is approximately 500,000 books and 70,000 other items, including 2,150 items that once belonged to Franklin, major collections of 17th-century and Revolution -era pamphlets and ephemera , maps, and whole libraries assembled in

198-404: A Georgian Revival set of buildings designed by Cope and Stewardson at 1631 and 1633 Locust Streets, a Frank Miles Day -designed Medieval mansion at 17th and Locust Streets, and several John Notman -designed houses and St. Mark’s Church on the 1600 block of Locust Street. Since the 18th century, Locust Street has been the residence of several prominent Americans. Between 1838 and 1844,

297-494: A democratic constitution with unlimited religious freedom. His tract, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience (1644), which was widely read in the mother country, was a passionate plea for absolute religious freedom and the total separation of church and state . Freedom of conscience had had high priority on the theological, philosophical, and political agenda, as Martin Luther refused to recant his beliefs before

396-545: A liver infection. Ashley was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to become part of his retinue. At Oxford, he was exposed to the writings of Islamic scholars, like Ibn Tufayl 's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan translated by Edward Pococke , who influenced his perspectives on philosophy and tabula rasa . Locke had been looking for a career and in 1667, moved into Ashley's home at Exeter House in London, to serve as his personal physician. In London, Locke resumed his medical studies under

495-408: A pledge to lay claim to goods . He believes that silver and gold, as opposed to paper money , are the appropriate currency for international transactions. Silver and gold, he says, are treated to have equal value by all of humanity and can thus be treated as a pledge by anyone, while the value of paper money is only valid under the government which issues it. Locke argues that a country should seek

594-584: A quasi-feudal aristocracy and gave Carolinian planters absolute power over their enslaved chattel property; the constitutions pledged that "every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves". Philosopher Martin Cohen notes that Locke, as secretary to the Council of Trade and Plantations and a member of the Board of Trade , was "one of just half a dozen men who created and supervised both

693-414: A Scottish-born physician and planter of Antigua . The earliest surviving printed catalogue of 1741 gives the range of readers' tastes, for the members' requirements shaped the collection. Excluding gifts, a third of the holdings of 375 titles were historical works, geographies and accounts of voyages and travels, a category the Library Company has collected energetically throughout its history. A fifth of

792-466: A civil way with help from government in a state of society. However, Locke never refers to Hobbes by name and may instead have been responding to other writers of the day. Locke also advocated governmental separation of powers and believed that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some circumstances. These ideas would come to have profound influence on the Declaration of Independence and

891-416: A classic reasoning for religious tolerance , in which three arguments are central: With regard to his position on religious tolerance, Locke was influenced by Baptist theologians like John Smyth and Thomas Helwys , who had published tracts demanding freedom of conscience in the early 17th century. Baptist theologian Roger Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island in 1636, where he combined

990-416: A favourable balance of trade , lest it fall behind other countries and suffer a loss in its trade. Since the world money stock grows constantly, a country must constantly seek to enlarge its own stock. Locke develops his theory of foreign exchanges, by which in addition to commodity movements, there are also movements in country stock of money, and movements of capital determine exchange rates . He considers

1089-614: A few years. Brewer likewise argues that Locke actively worked to undermine slavery in Virginia while heading a Board of Trade created by William of Orange following the Glorious Revolution . He specifically attacked colonial policy granting land to slave owners and encouraged the baptism and Christian education of the children of enslaved Africans to undercut a major justification of slavery—that they were heathens who possessed no rights. In his Two Treatises of Government , Locke provided

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1188-579: A glazed cabinet, the earliest extant example of American-made Palladian architectural furniture. Rooms on the second floor of the newly finished west wing of the State House (now Independence Hall ) housed the Library and its collections: there Franklin and his associates performed their first experiments in electricity during the 1740s. Later Benjamin West sent the mummified hand of an Egyptian princess. A charter

1287-510: A grandly metaphysical work such as Spinoza's Ethics , in other ways he was deeply receptive to Spinoza's ideas, most particularly to the rationalist's well thought out argument for political and religious tolerance and the necessity of the separation of church and state." Among the friends he made in the Netherlands are Van Leeuwenhoek and Van Limborch, the leader of the Remonstrants . In

1386-519: A justification for slavery that could never be met, thus rendering invalid all forms of slavery that existed. Moreover, because slavery is invalid, there is a moral injunction to try to throw off and escape from it. Locke also supported child labour , which was an intrinsic part of all pre-industrial societies. In his "Essay on the Poor Law", he discusses the education of the poor; he laments that "the children of labouring people are an ordinary burden to

1485-675: A lengthy period of poor health, Locke died on 28 October 1704, and is buried in the churchyard of All Saints' Church in High Laver , near Harlow in Essex, where he had lived in the household of Sir Francis Masham since 1691. Locke never married nor had children. Events that happened during Locke's lifetime include the English Restoration , the Great Plague of London , the Great Fire of London ,

1584-603: A letter he wrote titled Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money . Moreover, Locke anchors property in labour but, in the end, upholds unlimited accumulation of wealth. Locke's general theory of value and price is a supply-and-demand theory, set out in a letter to a member of parliament in 1691, titled Some Considerations on

1683-495: A natural right to defend his "life, health, liberty, or possessions". Most scholars trace the phrase " Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness " in the American Declaration of Independence to Locke's theory of rights, although other origins have been suggested. Like Hobbes, Locke assumed that the sole right to defend in the state of nature was not enough, so people established a civil society to resolve conflicts in

1782-436: A point of fact that might be found in a decent library. In colonial Pennsylvania at the time there were not many books; Books from London booksellers were expensive to purchase and slow to arrive. Franklin and his friends were mostly of moderate means, and none alone could have afforded a representative library such as a gentleman of leisure might expect to assemble. By pooling their resources in pragmatic Franklinian fashion, as

1881-445: A profound influence on political philosophy , in particular on modern liberalism. Michael Zuckert has argued that Locke launched liberalism by tempering Hobbesian absolutism and clearly separating the realms of Church and State . He had a strong influence on Voltaire , who called him " le sage Locke". His arguments concerning liberty and the social contract later influenced the written works of Thomas Jefferson . One passage from

1980-448: A set of Spenser's Works to the collection and Francis Richardson gave several volumes, among them Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum , but on the whole books in Latin were few. Overtures to the proprietor of Pennsylvania, John Penn at Pennsbury at first elicited no more than a polite response, but an unsolicited gift of 34 pounds sterling arrived in the summer of 1738 from Walter Sydserfe,

2079-449: A special case of this general theory. His idea is based on "money answers all things" ( Ecclesiastes ) or "rent of money is always sufficient, or more than enough" and "varies very little". Locke concludes that, as far as money is concerned, the demand for it is exclusively regulated by its quantity, regardless of whether the demand is unlimited or constant. He also investigates the determinants of demand and supply. For supply , he explains

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2178-644: A tenth of the titles, which set the Free Library apart from collegiate libraries at Harvard and Yale . Another tenth was works of philosophy, and the rest (approximately 1/15 of the collection) was "economics and such social sciences , the arts , linguistics , and the indefinables." The Company's agent in London was Peter Collinson , Fellow of the Royal Society , the Quaker mercer-naturalist of London, who corresponded with John Bartram . The Library Company's example

2277-466: A three-story Greek Revival mansion at 13th and Locust Streets from 1836 until his death in 1881. In 1856, the first Republican nominating convention for president and vice president was held at Musical Fund Hall at 808 Locust Street. On December 9, 1981, at 3:55am, Philadelphia Police Department officer Daniel Faulkner conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle carrying Marxist political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal 's younger brother William Cook at

2376-510: A tutor and medical attendant to Caleb Banks . He returned to England in 1679 when Shaftesbury's political fortunes took a brief positive turn. Around this time, most likely at Shaftesbury's prompting, Locke composed the bulk of the Two Treatises of Government . While it was once thought that Locke wrote the Treatises to defend the Glorious Revolution of 1688, recent scholarship has shown that

2475-608: A wide range of human interests and aspirations; more particularly, it refers to material goods . He argues that property is a natural right that is derived from labour . In Chapter V of his Second Treatise , Locke argues that the individual ownership of goods and property is justified by the labour exerted to produce such goods—"at least where there is enough [land], and as good, left in common for others" (para. 27)—or to use property to produce goods beneficial to human society. Locke states in his Second Treatise that nature on its own provides little of value to society, implying that

2574-510: A year thereafter to buy books and maintain a shareholder's library. Therefore, "the Mother of all American subscription libraries " was established, and a list of desired books compiled in part by James Logan , "the best Judge of Books in these parts," was sent to London by autumn the first books were on the shelves. Earlier libraries in the Thirteen Colonies belonged to gentlemen, members of

2673-446: Is a major historic street in Center City Philadelphia . The street is the location of several prominent Philadelphia -based buildings, historic sights, and high-rise residential locations. It is an east–west street throughout Center City Philadelphia and runs largely parallel to Chestnut Street , another major Center City Philadelphia street. Locust Street is one of several Philadelphia streets bordering Rittenhouse Square , one of

2772-414: Is also evidence that many of the library's curiosities were available to borrow if permission was obtained from any two directors. In 1769, Owen Biddle used the telescope to observe the transit of Venus from Cape Henlopen . On May 9 of that year Sarah Wistar became the first woman to be voted a library share. The library absorbed smaller lending libraries and outgrew its rooms, renting larger space on

2871-508: Is often credited for describing private property as a natural right , arguing that when a person — metaphorically — mixes their labour with nature , resources can be removed from the common state of nature . Locke was born on 29 August 1632, in a small thatched cottage by the church in Wrington , Somerset, about 12 miles from Bristol . He was baptised the same day, as both of his parents were Puritans . Locke's father, also named John,

2970-409: Is very like it, and might properly enough be called 'internal sense.' Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education is an outline on how to educate this mind. Drawing on thoughts expressed in letters written to Mary Clarke and her husband about their son, he expresses the belief that education makes the man—or, more fundamentally, that the mind is an "empty cabinet": I think I may say that of all

3069-553: The Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration all appearing in quick succession. Locke's close friend Lady Masham invited him to join her at Otes, the Mashams' country house in Essex. Although his time there was marked by variable health from asthma attacks, he nevertheless became an intellectual hero of the Whigs. During this period, he discussed matters with such figures as John Dryden and Isaac Newton . After

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3168-659: The Constitution of the United States . According to Locke, unused property is wasteful and an offence against nature, but, with the introduction of "durable" goods , men could exchange their excessive perishable goods for those which would last longer and thus not offend the natural law . In his view, the introduction of money marked the culmination of this process, making possible the unlimited accumulation of property without causing waste through spoilage. He also includes gold or silver as money because they may be "hoarded up without injury to anyone", as they do not spoil or decay in

3267-694: The Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Worms in 1521, unless he would be proved false by the Bible. Locke's views on slavery were multifaceted. Although he wrote against slavery in general, Locke was an investor and beneficiary of the slave-trading Royal Africa Company . Also, while secretary to the Earl of Shaftesbury , Locke participated in drafting the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina , which established

3366-703: The Free Library of Philadelphia , was chartered in 1891 to "be free to all", and opened in March 1894. The Library Company suffered financial troubles during the Great Depression and was forced to sell the Locust Street building and consolidate the collections in the Ridgway Library on South Broad Street . As its fortunes improved after the war, the institution focused on its mission as a scholarly research library. In

3465-546: The Glorious Revolution and war against France including the Battle of Blenheim just before his death. He did not live long enough to see the Act of Union of 1707 , but the thrones of England and Scotland were held in personal union throughout his lifetime. Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy were in their infancy during Locke's time. Locke has an engraved floor memorial plaque at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford . In

3564-454: The Library of Congress until the national capital was established in 1800. Virtually every significant work on political theory, history, law, and statecraft (and much else besides) could be found on the Library Company's shelves, as well as numerous tracts and polemical writings by American as well as European authors. And virtually all of those works that were influential in framing the minds of

3663-582: The Netherlands in 1683 in the company of Shaftesbury , under strong suspicion of involvement in the Rye House Plot , although there is little evidence to suggest that he was directly involved in the scheme. While in the Netherlands, he lived under the pen-name dr. Van Linden. The philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein argues that during his five years in Holland, Locke chose his friends "from among

3762-629: The Second Treatise is reproduced verbatim in the Declaration of Independence, the reference to a "long train of abuses". Concerning Locke, Thomas Jefferson wrote: Bacon , Locke and Newton … I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences. However, Locke's influence may have been even more profound in

3861-478: The United States Declaration of Independence . Internationally, Locke's political-legal principles continue to have a profound influence on the theory and practice of limited representative government and the protection of basic rights and freedoms under the rule of law. Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self , figuring prominently in

3960-633: The tabula rasa . In his Essay , in which both these concepts are introduced, Locke warns, for example, against letting "a foolish maid" convince a child that "goblins and sprites" are associated with the night, for "darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined, that he can no more bear the one than the other". This theory came to be called associationism , going on to strongly influence 18th-century thought, particularly educational theory , as nearly every educational writer warned parents not to allow their children to develop negative associations. It also led to

4059-630: The "father of liberalism ". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists , following the tradition of Francis Bacon , Locke is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy . His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau , and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries . His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in

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4158-604: The 18th and 19th centuries. The collection also includes first editions of Moby-Dick and Leaves of Grass . The Library Company was an offshoot of the Junto , a discussion group in colonial Philadelphia , that gravitated around Benjamin Franklin . On July 1, 1731, Franklin and a number of his fellow members among the Junto drew up articles of agreement to found a library, for they had discovered that their far-ranging conversations on intellectual and political themes floundered at times on

4257-567: The 50 years after Queen Anne's death in 1714, the Two Treatises were reprinted only once (except in the collected works of Locke). However, with the rise of American resistance to British taxation, the Second Treatise of Government gained a new readership; it was frequently cited in the debates in both America and Britain. The first American printing occurred in 1773 in Boston. Locke exercised

4356-399: The Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money . In it, he refers to supply as quantity and demand as rent : "The price of any commodity rises or falls by the proportion of the number of buyers and sellers" and "that which regulates the price…[of goods] is nothing else but their quantity in proportion to their rent." The quantity theory of money forms

4455-532: The Constitution of Carolina has been exaggerated and that he was merely paid to revise and make copies of a document that had already been partially written before he became involved; she compares Locke's role to a lawyer writing a will. She states that Locke was paid in Royal African Company stock in lieu of money for his work as a secretary for a governmental sub-committee, and that he sold the stock after

4554-558: The Framers of the nation are still on the Library Company's shelves. In 1785, the Company purchased a collection of Revolutionary broadsheets pamphlets and other ephemera that had been assiduously collected by Pierre Eugène Du Simitière , of which no other copies have survived. Permanent quarters were established for the Library Company in 1789 with the purchase of a lot on Fifth Street near Chestnut across from State House Square. A competition for

4653-453: The Library Company's historian wrote, "the contribution of each created the book capital of all. "Many of the first books in the collection focused Hat the first texts of on religion and education. It is notable t the collection was written in English, when during the period most books held in academic and private libraries were only found in Latin. The first librarian they hired, America's first,

4752-559: The Netherlands, Locke had time to return to his writing, spending a great deal of time working on the Essay Concerning Human Understanding and composing the Letter on Toleration. Locke did not return home until after the Glorious Revolution . Locke accompanied Mary II back to England in 1689. The bulk of Locke's publishing took place upon his return from exile—his aforementioned Essay Concerning Human Understanding ,

4851-482: The age of 20. The dean of the college at the time was John Owen , vice-chancellor of the university. Although a capable student, Locke was irritated by the undergraduate curriculum of the time. He found the works of modern philosophers, such as René Descartes , more interesting than the classical material taught at the university. Through his friend Richard Lower , whom he knew from the Westminster School, Locke

4950-424: The cash requirements are closely related to the length of the pay period. He argues the brokers—the middlemen —whose activities enlarge the monetary circuit and whose profits eat into the earnings of labourers and landholders, have a negative influence on both personal and the public economy to which they supposedly contribute. Locke uses the concept of property in both broad and narrow terms: broadly, it covers

5049-597: The clergy, and colleges. Members of the Library Company soon opened their own book presses to make donations: A Collection of Several Pieces , by John Locke ; Logic: or, the Art of Thinking , by the Port Royalists Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole , which Franklin in his autobiography said he had read at the age of 16; Plutarch 's Moralia translated by Philemon Holland ; Lewis Roberts' Merchants Mappe of Commerce , and others. A bit later William Rawle added

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5148-564: The colonies and their iniquitous systems of servitude". According to American historian James Farr, Locke never expressed any thoughts about his contradictory opinions of slavery, which Farr ascribes to his personal involvement in the slave trade. Locke's positions on slavery have been described as hypocritical, and laying the foundation for the Founding Fathers to hold similarly contradictory thoughts regarding freedom and slavery. But historian Holly Brewer has argued that Locke's role in

5247-420: The conflict between the unlimited accumulation of property and a more nearly equal distribution of wealth; he does not identify which principles that government should apply to solve this problem. However, not all elements of his thought form a consistent whole. For example, the labour theory of value in the Two Treatises of Government stands side by side with the demand-and-supply theory of value developed in

5346-608: The cost of the book. Apparently, their money was given back upon returning the book. The privilege of being a member meant that books could be borrowed for free. Franklin also mentioned that the library was only open on Saturdays, for four hours in the afternoon. On November 10, 1731, at Nicholas Scull's Bear Tavern ten persons paid their forty shillings: Robert Grace (share no. 1), Thomas Hopkinson (share no. 2),2 Benjamin Franklin (share no. 3), John Jones, Jr. (4), Joseph Breintnall (5), Anthony Nicholas (6), Thomas Godfrey (7), Joseph Stretch (8), Philip Syng, Jr. (9), and John Sober (10). It

5445-732: The cyst. Ashley survived and prospered, crediting Locke with saving his life. During this time, Locke served as Secretary of the Board of Trade and Plantations and Secretary to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina , which helped to shape his ideas on international trade and economics. Ashley, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence on Locke's political ideas. Locke became involved in politics when Ashley became Lord Chancellor in 1672 (Ashley being created 1st Earl of Shaftesbury in 1673). Following Shaftesbury's fall from favour in 1675, Locke spent some time travelling across France as

5544-657: The delegates. The offer was renewed when the Second Continental Congress met the following spring, and again when the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met in 1787. Nine signers of the Declaration of Independence— Benjamin Franklin , Benjamin Rush , Francis Hopkinson , Robert Morris , George Clymer , John Morton , James Wilson , Thomas McKean , and George Ross —owned shares, some of them serving as directors. The Library Company served virtually as

5643-555: The design of a building was won by an amateur of architecture, Dr. William Thornton , with a plan for a Palladian red-brick structure with white pilasters and a pediment interrupting a balustraded roof. A curving double flight of steps led up to the arched door under an arched niche containing a gift from William Bingham —a marble statue of Franklin in a classical toga sculpted in Italy by Francesco Lazzarini. Member's shares were extended to carpenters and bricklayers in partial payment for work on

5742-593: The development of psychology and other new disciplines with David Hartley 's attempt to discover a biological mechanism for associationism in his Observations on Man (1749). Locke was critical of Descartes's version of the dream argument , with Locke making the counter-argument that people cannot have physical pain in dreams as they do in waking life. Some scholars have seen Locke's political convictions as being based from his religious beliefs. Locke's religious trajectory began in Calvinist trinitarianism , but by

5841-421: The early stages of the [Glorious] Revolution, up to 1692, and even less thereafter, unless it was to heap abuse on them" and that "no one, including most Whigs, [was] ready for the idea of a notional or abstract contract of the kind adumbrated by Locke". In contrast, Kenyon adds that Algernon Sidney 's Discourses Concerning Government were "certainly much more influential than Locke's Two Treatises. " In

5940-569: The famed author and poet Edgar Allan Poe lived at four different locations in Philadelphia, including one residence at 16th and Locust Streets. While in Philadelphia, Poe authored 31 stories, including " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " in 1841 and " The Gold-Bug " and " The Tell-Tale Heart ", both in 1843. Robert Patterson , a Union Army general during the American Civil War , resided at

6039-413: The first fifty must be approved by the directors, sign the articles, and pay the subscription. Admitting new members and selecting new books were the directors' ordinary duties. In the back of the library's 1741 catalog, Franklin mentioned that the library was accessible to people who were not members. Those who were not members were allowed to borrow books. However, they had to leave enough money to cover

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6138-533: The five original parks established by the city's founder, William Penn . Locust Street is now a hybrid of commercial and residential buildings. It historically was exclusively a residential street with mansions and home to many of the city's most affluent residents. The street includes historical building structures designed by some of the Gilded Age 's preeminent architects, including a Horace Trumbauer -designed Beaux-Arts limestone building at 1629 Locust Street,

6237-440: The hands of the possessor. In his view, the introduction of money eliminates limits to accumulation. Locke stresses that inequality has come about by tacit agreement on the use of money, not by the social contract establishing civil society or the law of land regulating property. Locke was aware of a problem posed by unlimited accumulation, but did not consider it his task. He just implies that government would function to moderate

6336-479: The intersection of 13th and Locust Streets. During the stop, Faulkner and Cook became engaged in a physical confrontation. Driving his cab in the vicinity, Abu-Jamal observed the altercation, parked, and ran across the street toward Cook's car. Faulkner was shot in the back and face. He shot Abu-Jamal in the stomach. Faulkner died at the scene from the gunshot to his head, and Abu-Jamal was treated for his wounds at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital , recovered, and

6435-487: The labour expended in the creation of goods gives them their value. From this premise, understood as a labour theory of value , Locke developed a labour theory of property , whereby ownership of property is created by the application of labour. In addition, he believed that property precedes government and government cannot "dispose of the estates of the subjects arbitrarily". Karl Marx later critiqued Locke's theory of property in his own social theory. Locke defines

6534-537: The late 17th and early 18th centuries, Locke's Two Treatises were rarely cited. Historian Julian Hoppit said of the book "except among some Whigs, even as a contribution to the intense debate of the 1690s it made little impression and was generally ignored until 1703 (though in Oxford in 1695 it was reported to have made 'a great noise')." John Kenyon , in his study of British political debate from 1689 to 1720, has remarked that Locke's theories were "mentioned so rarely in

6633-408: The latter less significant and less volatile than commodity movements. As for a country's money stock, if it is large relative to that of other countries, he says it will cause the country's exchange to rise above par, as an export balance would do. He also prepares estimates of the cash requirements for different economic groups ( landholders , labourers, and brokers). In each group he posits that

6732-420: The location of several major Philadelphia -based non-profit and historical organizations, including: PATCO Speedline operates three subway station on Locust Street: John Locke John Locke ( / l ɒ k / ; 29 August 1632 ( O.S. ) – 28 October 1704 ( O.S. )) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as

6831-799: The man". In his Essay , Locke explains the gradual unfolding of this conscious mind. Arguing against both the Augustinian view of man as originally sinful and the Cartesian position, which holds that man innately knows basic logical propositions, Locke posits an 'empty mind', a tabula rasa , which is shaped by experience; sensations and reflections being the two sources of all of our ideas . He states in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding : This source of ideas every man has wholly within himself; and though it be not sense, as having nothing to do with external objects, yet it

6930-450: The men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education. Locke also wrote that "the little and almost insensible impressions on our tender infancies have very important and lasting consequences". He argues that the " associations of ideas " that one makes when young are more important than those made later because they are the foundation of the self ; they are, put differently, what first mark

7029-501: The mid-19th century. A large bequest from Dr. James Rush resulted in a new building at Broad and Christian streets in South Philadelphia. The Ridgway Library, as it was called, was controversial because it was both physically and socially removed from the homes and businesses of its members. A new, more centrally located, library designed by Frank Furness opened its doors in 1880 at Juniper and Locust Street. An unrelated endeavor,

7128-580: The new building. The new quarters were opened on New Year's Day, 1791. For the new library Samuel Jennings, an expatriate Philadelphian living in London, painted a large picture, " Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences ." In 1792, the Loganian Library, which had been housed across the square, was transferred to the Library Company, complementing its collection with the 2600 books (chiefly in Latin and Greek) that had been collected by James Logan. This collection

7227-475: The parish, and are usually maintained in idleness, so that their labour also is generally lost to the public till they are 12 or 14 years old". Therefore, he suggests the setting up of "working schools" for poor children in each parish in England so that they will be "from infancy [three years old] inured to work". He goes on to outline the economics of these schools, arguing not only that they will be profitable for

7326-469: The parish, but also that they will instil a good work ethic in the children. Locke's political theory was founded upon that of social contract . Unlike Thomas Hobbes , Locke believed that human nature is characterised by reason and tolerance . Like Hobbes, however, Locke believed that human nature allows people to be selfish. This is apparent with the introduction of currency. In a natural state , all people were equal and independent, and everyone had

7425-461: The physical world. Locke thought the state's borders and the functioning and enforcement of the existence of the state and its constitution were metaphysically tied to "the natural rights of the individual", and this inspired future liberal politicians and philosophers . Writing his Letters Concerning Toleration (1689–1692) in the aftermath of the European wars of religion , Locke formulated

7524-549: The reality of evil. Man was capable of waging unjust wars and committing crimes. Criminals had to be punished, even with the death penalty. With regard to the Bible, Locke was very conservative. He retained the doctrine of the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. The miracles were proof of the divine nature of the biblical message. Locke was convinced that the entire content of the Bible was in agreement with human reason ( The Reasonableness of Christianity , 1695). Although Locke

7623-692: The realm of epistemology . Locke redefined subjectivity , or self , leading intellectual historians such as Charles Taylor and Jerrold Seigel to argue that Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689/90) marks the beginning of the modern Western conception of the self . Locke's theory of association heavily influenced the subject matter of modern psychology . At the time, Locke's recognition of two types of ideas, simple and complex —and, more importantly, their interaction through association—inspired other philosophers, such as David Hume and George Berkeley , to revise and expand this theory and apply it to explain how humans gain knowledge in

7722-431: The same as demand for goods or land: it depends on whether money is wanted as medium of exchange . As a medium of exchange, he states, "money is capable by exchange to procure us the necessaries or conveniences of life" and, for loanable funds , "it comes to be of the same nature with land by yielding a certain yearly income…or interest". Locke distinguishes two functions of money: as a counter to measure value , and as

7821-457: The same freethinking members of dissenting Protestant groups as Spinoza's small group of loyal confidants. [Baruch Spinoza had died in 1677.] Locke almost certainly met men in Amsterdam who spoke of the ideas of that renegade Jew who... insisted on identifying himself through his religion of reason alone." While she says that "Locke's strong empiricist tendencies" would have "disinclined him to read

7920-605: The second floor of the new Carpenters' Company hall in 1773. "The Books (inclosed within Wire Lattices) are kept in one large Room," Franklin was informed in London, "and in another handsome Apartment the [scientific] Apparatus is deposited and the Directors meet." On September 5, 1774, the First Continental Congress met on the first floor of Carpenters' Hall , and the Library Company extended members' privileges to all

8019-545: The second half of the 20th century, under the direction of Edwin Wolf II , an energetic program of renewal brought the Library Company once more into a busy and vital center of national importance for research and education. The Library Company completed a new building on Locust Street, also named the Ridgway Library, in 1965, and opened it to the public in April 1966. Notes Further reading Locust Street Locust Street

8118-400: The self as "that conscious thinking thing, (whatever substance, made up of whether spiritual, or material, simple, or compounded, it matters not) which is sensible, or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends". He does not, however, wholly ignore "substance", writing that "the body too goes to the making

8217-528: The time of the Reflections (1695) Locke was advocating not just Socinian views on tolerance but also Socinian Christology . However Wainwright (1987) notes that in the posthumously published Paraphrase (1707) Locke's interpretation of one verse, Ephesians 1 :10, is markedly different from that of Socinians like Biddle , and may indicate that near the end of his life Locke returned nearer to an Arian position, thereby accepting Christ's pre-existence. Locke

8316-410: The titles were literature, mostly in the form of poetry and plays, for the prose novel was still in its infancy: as late as 1783, in the first orders from London after the war years, the directors thought "we should not think it expedient to add to our present stock, anything in the novel way." Another fifth of the titles were devoted to works of science. Theology and sermons , however, accounted for only

8415-536: The tutelage of Thomas Sydenham . Sydenham had a major effect on Locke's natural philosophical thinking—an effect that would become evident in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding . Locke's medical knowledge was put to the test when Ashley's liver infection became life-threatening. Locke coordinated the advice of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading Ashley to undergo surgery (then life-threatening in itself) to remove

8514-407: The value of goods as based on their scarcity and ability to be exchanged and consumed . He explains demand for goods as based on their ability to yield a flow of income. Locke develops an early theory of capitalisation , such as of land, which has value because "by its constant production of saleable commodities it brings in a certain yearly income". He considers the demand for money as almost

8613-445: The work of later philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume , and Immanuel Kant . He postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate, or tabula rasa . Contrary to Cartesian philosophy based on pre-existing concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas , and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception , a concept now known as empiricism . Locke

8712-455: The work was composed well before this date. The work is now viewed as a more general argument against absolute monarchy (particularly as espoused by Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes ) and for individual consent as the basis of political legitimacy . Although Locke was associated with the influential Whigs, his ideas about natural rights and government are today considered quite revolutionary for that period in English history. Locke fled to

8811-415: Was Louis Timothee. He only held the position for a brief time. Until another librarian was found to replace him, Benjamin Franklin took over his duties. Franklin's stint as librarian ended in 1734, when he was replaced by William Parsons, the librarian for the next 12 years. Robert Greenway was the fourth librarian, whose tenure lasted until 1763. The articles of association specified that each member after

8910-446: Was a disappointing turnout: all but John Sober and the hatter Joseph Stretch (son of Peter Stretch ), who later became a Pennsylvania assemblyman, were officers. The library now had eleven paid-up members. Joseph Stretch and his brothers provided half of the original capital to build Pennsylvania Hospital , another of Benjamin Franklin's projects. Over time, fifty subscribers invested 40 shillings each and promised to pay ten shillings

9009-423: Was an advocate of tolerance, he urged the authorities not to tolerate atheism , because he thought the denial of God's existence would undermine the social order and lead to chaos. That excluded all atheistic varieties of philosophy and all attempts to deduce ethics and natural law from purely secular premises. In Locke's opinion the cosmological argument was valid and proved God's existence. His political thought

9108-732: Was an attorney who served as clerk to the Justices of the Peace in Chew Magna and as a captain of cavalry for the Parliamentarian forces during the early part of the English Civil War . His mother was Agnes Keene. Soon after Locke's birth, the family moved to the market town of Pensford , about seven miles south of Bristol, where Locke grew up in a rural Tudor house in Belluton . In 1647, Locke

9207-577: Was at times not sure about the subject of original sin , so he was accused of Socinianism, Arianism, or Deism . Locke argued that the idea that "all Adam ' s Posterity [are] doomed to Eternal Infinite Punishment, for the Transgression of Adam " was "little consistent with the Justice or Goodness of the Great and Infinite God", leading Eric Nelson to associate him with Pelagian ideas. However, he did not deny

9306-446: Was charged with first-degree murder of Faulkner. In May 1983, Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death in May 1983. The death sentence was later dropped, but Abu-Jamal's conviction became a global controversy and subject of extensive attention in popular culture , including four documentaries, multiple books, and multiple songs and references in contemporary music. Locust Street is

9405-710: Was introduced to medicine and the experimental philosophy being pursued at other universities and in the Royal Society , of which he eventually became a member. Locke was awarded a bachelor's degree in February 1656 and a master's degree in June 1658. He obtained a bachelor of medicine in February 1675, having studied the subject extensively during his time at Oxford and, in addition to Lower, worked with such noted scientists and thinkers as Robert Boyle , Thomas Willis and Robert Hooke . In 1666, he met Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley , who had come to Oxford seeking treatment for

9504-743: Was issued for the Company by the Penn proprietors, March 24, 1742, that included a plot of land, issued in their name by Governor George Thomas . Collinson, who had faithfully executed the Company's requests for books over the years, sent windfalls in 1755 and in 1758 in the form of boxes of his own copies of a score of 17th-century accounts of the newly established British colonies in America, among them such classics as Strachey 's Lawes , Mourt's Relation and John Smith 's General Historie of Virginia . The Library Company's microscope and telescope were frequently borrowed and from time to time, needed repairs. There

9603-414: Was sent to the prestigious Westminster School in London under the sponsorship of Alexander Popham , a member of Parliament and John Sr.'s former commander. At the age of 16 he was at school just half a mile away from the execution of Charles I ; however, the boys were not allowed to go and watch. After completing studies at Westminster, he was admitted to Christ Church , Oxford , in the autumn of 1652 at

9702-472: Was soon imitated in other cities along the Atlantic coast , from Salem to Charleston . The Library soon became a repository of other curiosities: antique coins, including a gift of Roman coins from a Tory Member of Parliament , fossils , natural history specimens, minerals. When John Penn, making up for his slow start, sent an air-pump to the learned society in 1739, the directors, to house it commissioned

9801-717: Was supplemented by the medical library of James Logan's younger brother, a physician in Bristol, England, the best medical library in North America. Thornton's new building immediately required a new wing. The collections went from strength to strength in the 19th century. In mid-century it was considered one of the "five great libraries" in the United States, along with the Harvard University Library , Yale University Library , Library of Congress , and Boston Athenæum . The Library Company's collections were physically split in

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