Carlo Augusto Viano on John Locke’s Idea of Experience

Abstract

Carlo Agusto Viano devoted assiduous attention to Locke’s work. This paper aims at exploring his interpretation of Locke’s concept of experience, identifying two important stages. In the first one, represented by his book John Locke. Dal razionalismo all’illuminismo (1960), Viano mainly focused on the various meanings Locke attributed to experience, in particular his idea of a method for verifying our beliefs. In the second stage, including Viano’s later contributions on Locke, he favoured an interpretation of Locke’s empiricism as being deeply rooted in Aristotelianism, Scholasticism and Cartesianism. He especially insisted on Locke’s ability to create an “empiricist version of Cartesianism”, grounded in Scholasticism. The paper intends to highlight Viano’s ability to thoroughly investigate Locke’s philosophy.