A Gentleman's "moderate knowledge": Mediocrity in John Locke's "Some Thoughts concerning Education"

The paper aims to investigate the specificity of the curricular recommendations which Locke addressed to young gentlemen’s tutors in Some Thoughts concerning Education, which appear to be markedly characterized by moderation: excellence in either scholarly or modern learning was rejected for its being not a gentleman’s main business. What Locke insisted on was the acquisition of virtuous habits as the chief scope of a gentleman’s education; a “taste” of the various sciences, as well as a modest refinement of manners, were to be recognized as sufficient to this end. The «moderate knowledge» which Locke thought of as appropriate to a gentleman appeared to be closely connected with the «state of mediocrity» which, in the Essay, he described as proper to man in his earthly life: the weakness of the latter’s intellectual faculties should be considered as a divine monitum to restrict knowledge to what could be useful to enhance the conveniences of this life, without indulging in too subtle speculations or wasting time idly. This was a lesson Locke probably thought that the gentry of his time should be reminded of: the mediocre state he attributed to the generality of human beings appeared to be particularly appropriate when describing the gentry’s condition in the last few decades of the seventeenth century, which was significantly marked by uneasiness and anxiety.