Abstract
THE CULTURE OF LANGUAGE VERSUS LOGICAL CULTURE
IN JOHN LOCKE’S THOUGHT
S u m m a r y
! This article discusses the problems of language in John Locke’s thought. In the present studies
the dominating considerations focus on the history of epistemology and philosophy of language.
This study takes into account a broader intellectual context of the philosophy of language pursued at
the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. First and foremost it places the problems of
language in the context of changes in the teaching of logic and rhetoric. Locke inspired the then
beliefs about the significance of language as the tool of science and public discourse, in the
questions of education, morality, politics, and religion. The English philosopher emphasized how important was the duty to shape the activity of the human mind, one of which was to develop
linguistic skills; such skills are the condition of the reliability of knowledge and argumentative
efficacy in social communication.