These readings include chapters 3 and 4 of Locke's famous work An Essay on the Human Understanding. Chapter 3 talks about the impossibility of having innate practical principles. It is important to distinguish that this chapter is very different from the previous one, which was chapter 2. Chapter 2 talked about the impossibility of having innate speculative principles. This refers to speculative reason. Speculative reason is theoretical, certain and has no real dependence on life. It is what gives the individual the universal truths of life and the principles of logic. This chapter, however, talks about practical reason. This type of reason is active, involved and dependent on the life of a human being. It is what guides a human being and helps him decide what to do with things. So, in a sense, speculative principles are those that talk about theory in general and practical principles, as their name goes, are those that put these principles into practice in life. As Locke said in the previous chapter, it is quite impossible that we are born with these innate principles in our minds. Locke provides 27 statements in this chapter to defend his point of view. Reviewing them all would not be of much use because this presentation would result in a shortened and compressed version of the readings. Instead, we will look at the main points of his argument. Locke begins by stating that if speculative principles are not innate and shared by all humanity, then it follows that the moral principles of the world are not shared by all humanity. From this it is therefore clear that they are not innate in human beings. Furthermore, he explains that speculative maxims carry a certain truth, but at the heart of the article is an argument that the differences between men's discoveries depend on the application of their faculties. . This is really self-explanatory. It simply means that the reason why men make different discoveries is because each one applies his own faculties to what he likes best. They decide what to apply their faculties and knowledge to. The chapter ends by saying that men should think for themselves and apply reason to their lives. This means questioning principles, not taking everything for granted and not believing that they are born with innate ideas. For this reason, Locke ends his readings by telling the reader not to assume that the ideas presented are not true. It encourages the reader to reach their own conclusions and determine for themselves whether Locke's ideas are absolutely true or not. Works Cited http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfs/locke1690book1.pdf