's exploits are in part
inspired by Locke, an Enlightenment philosopher whose Essay Concerning Human
Understanding advocated learning through experience and perception. Crusoe
deliberately does not heed his father's advice to stay in England and become a lawyer, and is
eventually shipwrecked on an island where he must fend for himself. In so doing, he embodies
Locke's ideas about how to improve one's knowledge. For example, in Chapter IV, when Crusoe
arrives on the island, he goes about trying to saw off parts of the shipwrecked boat for his own
use. He says, "But the hope of furnishing myself with necessaries encouraged me to go
beyond what I should have been able to have done upon another occasion." His need to
survive helps...
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