Tom's Learning Notes

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a 1689 work by John Locke setting out a new theory of knowledge influenced by contemporary scientific developments. In Book 1 of the essay, Locke strongly attacked Cartesian rationalism and its doctrine that the human mind has access to innate ideas. In Book 2 he posited that the mind was like a white sheet of paper (often paraphrased as a 'blank slate'), with its only source of knowledge being experience.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding at Amazon: United States | Canada | United Kingdom | France | Germany | Spain | Italy

Free online texts

Chinese University of Hong Kong: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Framed HTML format.

Early Modern Texts: Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), adapted and translated into modern English, by Jonathan Bennett. PDF format.

Gutenberg: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 | Volume 2. Multiple formats.

Internet Archive: An Essay concerning Human Understanding, edited by Alexander Campbell Fraser. Multiple formats.

Internet Archive: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, with other works by Locke, Berkeley and Hume. (Great Books of the Western World edition, 1937). Multiple formats.

Liberty Fund: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Volume 1 | Volume 2. Multiple formats.

University of Adelaide: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Multiple formats.

Wikisource: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. HTML and other formats.

The New Organon (Latin: Novum Organum) is a Latin treatise on scientific method by Francis Bacon (1561-1621). Published in 1620, it was intened to form form part of a greater work which was never completed, the Instauratio Magna. Its title reflects Bacon's critique of ways thinking influenced by Aristotle's Organon, which he sought to replace with the experimental method and inductive reasoning.

The New Organon at Amazon: United States | Canada | United Kingdom | France | Germany | Spain | Italy

Free online texts

Bartleby: The New Organon Or, True Directions Concerning the Interpretation of Nature. English translation by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath. HTML format.

Early Modern Texts: The New Organon, adapted and translated into more modern English, by Jonathan Bennett. PDF format.

Gutenberg: Novum Organum; Or, True Suggestions for the Interpretation of Nature, translated by Joseph Devey. Multiple formats. 

Hanover College: Novum Organum. English translation by Basil Montague (1854). HTML format.

Internet Archive: The Works of Francis Bacon, Vol IV (1858). Multiple formats.

Latin Library: Novum Organum. Latin text. HTML format.

Liberty Fund: Novum Organum. English translation by Joseph Devey. Multiple formats.

University of Adelaide: The New Organon, translated by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath (1863). Multiple formats.

Wikisource: Latin text and multiple translations. HTML and other formats.

Other Resources

BBC Radio 4 In Our Time: Baconian Science. Melvyn Bragg with Patricia Fara, Stephen Pumfrey and Rhodri Lewis.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Francis Bacon (1561 -1626).

Librivox: The New Organon - public domain audiobook.

PhilPapers: Francis Bacon - open access papers.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Francis Bacon.

Wikipedia: Novum Organum

YouTube/60 Second Philosophy: The New Organon overview.

Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes

Aristotle: The Organon - The foundational body of work on logic and scientific method whose authority Bacon sought to overturn.

John Aubrey: Brief Lives - includes a life of Bacon.

On the Heavens (Greek: Περὶ οὐρανοῦ, Latin: De Caelo) is Aristotle's chief work on cosmology and astronomy. It remained a profound influence on later astronomical thinking until the early modern period.

On the Heavens at Amazon.com, .uk, .fr, .de, .ca.

Free online texts

Internet Archive: De Caelo, translated by J.L. Stocks (1922). Multiple formats.

Internet Classics Archive: On The Heavens, translated by J.L. Stocks (1922). HTML and TXT files.

Sacred-texts.com: On The Heavens, translated by J.L. Stocks (1922). HTML text.

University of Adelaide: On the Heavens, translated by J.L. Stocks. Multiple formats.

Wikisource: Greek text. English text, translated by J.L. Stocks. Multiple formats.

Other Resources

History of Philosophy without any gaps: Let's Get Physical: Aristotle's Natural Philosophy - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

History of Philosophy without any gaps: Richard Sorabji on Time and Eternity in Aristotle - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

History of Philosophy without any gaps: God Only Knows: Aristotle on Mind and God - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

Librivox: On the Heavens - public domain audiobook.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Aristotle's Natural Philosophy, by Istvan Bodnar.

Wikipedia: On the Heavens

The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes

Plato: Timaeus - a key dialogue on cosmology.

Ancient Greek resources: Learn to read Greek classics in the original.

The Physics (Greek: Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις Phusike akroasis; Latin: Physica, or Physicae Auscultationes)  is a treatise by Aristotle in which he sets out the fundamentals of his philosophy of nature. For Aristotle, a thing's nature (Greek physis) is the source of its motion, something he analyses in terms of his famous theory of the four causes (material, efficient, formal, and final).

Aristotle's Physics at Amazon.com, .uk, .fr, .de, .ca.

Free online texts

Boston University: Physics, translated by R. P. Hardie and R. K. Gaye. HTML format.

Greektexts.com/Internet Archive: Physics. HTML format. 

Internet Archive: Works of Aristotle Volume II. Translated into English under the editorship of W.D. Ross (1908). Multiple formats.

Internet Archive: Aristotelis Opera. Greek Bekker edition (1837). Multiple formats.

Internet Classics Archive: Physics, translated by R. P. Hardie and R. K. Gaye. HTML and TXT formats.

Remacle.org: Physique d'Aristote, translated into French by Barthélémy Saint-Hilaire (1861).

Other Resources

Dominican House of Studies: Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, by Thomas Aquinas.

History of Philosophy without any gaps: Form and Function: Aristotle's Four Causes - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

History of Philosophy without any gaps: Let's Get Physical: Aristotle's Natural Philosophy - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

History of Philosophy without any gaps: Richard Sorabji on Time and Eternity in Aristotle - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

 History of Philosophy without any gaps: God Only Knows: Aristotle on Mind and God - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Aristotle - Motion and its Place in Nature, by Joe Sachs.

Librivox: Physics - public domain audiobook.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Aristotle's Natural Philosophy, by Istvan Bodnar.

Wikipedia: Physics

Aristotle's Physics at Amazon.com, .uk, .fr, .de, .ca.

The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes.

Aristotle: On the Heavens.

Plato: The Timaeus - A key dialogue for Plato's natural philosophy.

Ancient Greek resources: Learn to read Greek classics in the original.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Khan Academy: Physics

Wikipedia: Physics