An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a work by
John Locke concerning the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. It first appeared in 1689 (although dated 1690) with the printed title
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. He describes the mind at birth as a blank slate (
tabula rasa, although he did not use those actual words) filled later through
experience. The essay was one of the principal sources of
empiricism in modern philosophy, and influenced many enlightenment philosophers, such as
David Hume and
George Berkeley.