Logical Tracts: Comprising Observations and Essays Illustrative of Mr Locke’s Treatise upon the Human Understanding

From the very beginning of this work, the reader is in the midst of a heated controversy concerning the role of Reason in theology. The Latitudinarianism of Locke and his disciples was under attack: Milner, in his reply to Gibbon, blames Locke for introducing a "pompous parade of reasoning" into religion, Kett accuses Locke of sceptical tendencies, Trinitarians attack Locke's alleged Arianism. The forces of reaction - in theology and politics alike - were on the march. In this work Ludlam takes up the challenge on Locke's behalf, insisting that thinking requires clear ideas, that the opponents of Locke were talking, quite literally, nonsense. Topics discussed include the "Common Sense" philosophy" of Reid and Stewart, dismissed by Ludlam as a terrible "confusion of ideas", the role of abstract ideas in reasoning, with particular reference to theological debates concerning the Trinity and Locke's unfortunate and mistaken suggestion, in the "Essay", that ethics might be capable of demonstration.