Shaping the men of the Enlightenment: a century of translations of "Some Thoughts concerning Education"

Abstract

Philosophical historiography traditionally considers An Essay Concerning Human Understanding as Locke’s crucial contribution to the development of early modern Western philosophy. However, despite its notoriety and the profound influence it exerted on the contemporary philosophical scene, this pivotal essay was not – from the point of view of book history – the best seller among the works by the English philosopher. It proved to be less commercially successful and had lower circulation than another treatise, which served as a “laboratory” for Locke’s philosophy: Some Thoughts Concerning Education. The article aims at presenting an original overview of the main French, Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish translations of the text, produced during the 18th century, highlighting their peculiarities, and investigating their publishing history – exploiting paratextual elements and clues from secondary sources. Based on the analysis of translators’ remarks and printers’ editorial strategies, the article puts forward hypotheses on the European reception of Locke’s essay on education within different cultural contexts, at different times.