Toland and Locke in the Leibniz-Burnett Correspondence

Abstract

Thomas Burnett of Kemnay (1656-1729), who corresponded with Leibniz for several years, is perhaps best known to historians of philosophy as one of those via whom Leibniz tried to communicate with Locke. But he was more generally a source of intellectual news for Leibniz – principally about new work in English, but also about events wherever Burnett’s travels took him. Among other correspondence, between November 1695 and September 1701 Burnett wrote about four letters a year to Leibniz from England, almost all from London. He was in this way a major source of information for Leibniz about Locke and the English intellectual debates in which Locke was participating.

Keywords

• John Locke