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|Historical Context=Locke lived in politically turbulent times for England. Conflicts between the King and the Parliament and between Protestants, Anglicans, and Catholics led to civil war in the 1640's, when Locke was a teenager. King Charles I was defeated and killed. The In the 1650's, the monarchy was abolished in favor of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate in the 1650's. The protectorate collapsed and the monarchy was restored in 1660, around the time Locke finished his bachelor's degree. In 1668, King James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution in favor of William of Orange and his wife Maryin the Glorious Revolution. [[CiteRef::Uzgalis (2016)|p. 3]]

Although Locke was born into a family of modest means, he was able to obtain an excellent education by way of his father's connections. In 1647, at the age of fifteen, he began studies at Westminster School, considered London's best. At twenty, he began studies at Christ Church College, Oxford. His studies focused on logic, metaphysics, and languages taught within the framework of '''Aristotelian scholasticism'''. [[CiteRef::Uzgalis (2016)| pp. 3-4]] This was more than a century after Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) had posited his '''heliocentric cosmology''' in 1543, and forty years after Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) had published his observations with the telescope in 1610. Both were strong challenges to Aristotelianism. [[CiteRef::Westfall (1980)|p. 6]] Like many ambitious students of the time, Locke doubted Aristotelian scholasticism and sought alternative resources outside the formal curriculum. Such resources were abundant at Oxford. He became involved with a discussion group centered on organized by John Wilkins (1614-1672) . In the Wilkins group, Locke was exposed to the '''experimental philosophy''' and the ideas of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) who argued for an '''inductive methodology''' for science. Many Wilkins associates were interested in pursuing medicine by observation rather than reading classic texts. The Wilkins group was the nucleus of what would later become the '''Royal Society''' of England, which became a formal institution in the 1660's. The society set itself in opposition to the Aristotelian scholasticism of the universities, advocating the study of nature rather than of ancient texts. [[CiteRef::Uzgalis (2016)|p. 4]]Locke's notebooks indicate a strong interest in medicine and chemistry. He attended the lectures of the great anatomist Thomas Willis (1621-1675) and took careful notes.

Many members of the study group were interested in medicine and pursuing medicine by observation rather than by reading classic texts. The Wilkins group was the nucleus of what would later become the '''Royal Society''' of England, which became a formal institution in the 1660's. The society set itself in opposition to the Aristotelian scholasticism of the universities, advocating the study of nature rather than of ancient texts. [[CiteRef::Uzgalis (2016)|p. 4]] Locke received his bachelor's degree in 1656. He was elected a senior student of Christ Church College and decided to study medicine and chemistry. When John Wilkins left Oxford, the new leader of the scientific group became Robert Boyle (1627-1691). Boyle ascribed to the '''corpuscular mechanistic philosophy''' associated with [[Rene Descartes]] (1596-1650), that which held that the visible properties of the natural world were due to interactions between invisibly small particles or corpuscles. He is noted for his physical experiments and . Boyle became Locke's scientific tutor. Locke read Boyle's works and those of Descartes, though he also learned from his experimentalist associates to be skeptical of Descartes rationalism.