Locke- Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Chronologically, these are the processes by which ideas are formed in our minds:

1. Direction we discover the world, and therefore ideas appear in our mind 2. These, more and more familiar, return to our memory and we give them names 3. The spirit of other abstract ideas, these ideas brought by the senses: it is the general concepts 4. Mind reasoning about these concepts and find others.

xii-xxi: - - - Locke relegates almost all of - (excepting only mathematics and moral science) and most of our everyday - to the category of - or _.Judgment, like knowledge, is a faculty concerned with identifying the ...of propositions. It perceives -, rather than certain, connections between ideas. While knowledge is based on - and demonstration, judgment in based on probability. - is the appearance of agreement or disagreement by the intervention of proofs that do not lead to -, but, rather, to likelihood. We base our judgments of - on the apparent conformity of propositions to our own experience and to the testimony of others.

Judgment or Opinion science experience truth and falsehood apparent intuition Probability certainty probability

It should also be noted that "- is the main if not the only stimulus that excites ...." Indeed, if we could run out of what is to be satisfied and staying "at home", we do not want to. Later, Locke says that what drives people to act is not ..., according to a traditional - conception, but this concern. Thus, the drunkard knows that... Locke described the play of faculties, those of the understanding and the will. He asks questions like: are we free to will? This leads him to define freedom as "a man has the power to do ...., according to the -."

anxiety industry and human activity. the highest good Aristotelian away from the greater good when he starts to drink, but is driven by the concern of running out of what he wants most: alcohol. any particular action will

We see once again affirmed the - of Locke, which supports this view of the mind as a tabula rasa. Locke distinguished in the Essay on Human Understanding two kinds of ideas: 1- - 2- -

empiricism ideas simple complex ideas

To better understand this - , Locke is an example: "This is .... in the idea is nothing in the - which we give these - a certain size, shape and particle motion insensitive which they are composed. "

idea sweet, blue or hot body names

In fact, we take - practical principles because we have not seen or that has forgotten its origin. Looking good, "the doctrines that have no better sources than the superstition of a nurse or the authority of an old woman, become over time and by the consent of neighbors, many principles of ...

innate religion and morality.

Book I: innate notions In the first book, Locke attacks the doctrine of - - , found in -. This doctrine says that man is born with ideas already formed in the mind, like -, as he argues in his Meditations. Locke shows that man can - all the ideas by the mere use of his- - . Thus, man is not born with the idea of ​​-, but he - it through the view.

innate ideas Descartes God discover natural faculties. red acquires

The FIRST is about our knowledge of the existence of ourselves, which we know by -. The second is about our knowledge of the existence of -, which we know by demonstration. The third is about our knowledge of the existence of an - - , roughly resembling the world as we think it is. We know this last category of existence by that third, pseudo-grade of knowledge: - - . Locke's discussion of our knowledge of the existence of ourselves and of God is almost identical to -' treatment of these topics. His discussion of sensitive knowledge, however, is - -. Locke's mediated theory of - raises the standard skeptical worry: If all we have access to is our ideas, how do we know there is a world out there? Locke has three strategies for dealing with this concern, and he employs all of them in chapter -. Locke's first strategy, and the one he seems most viscerally drawn to, is to simply refuse to take the - seriously. Can anyone really doubt, he asks, that there is an - - out there? Next, he takes a pragmatist tack. If you want to doubt that there is an external world, he says, that is just fine. All that matters is that we.... to get around in the world.

intuition God external world sensitive knowledge Descartes extremely original perception xi skeptic external world know enough to enable us

Locke devotes an entire chapter of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding - - , to show that none of them is therefore innate -. Indeed, if morality was ..., and we would all have pangs of conscience for violation of murder or theft, which is not the case. The rules of morality..., so they are not innate. Locke takes a classic argument from the skeptics, which shows the - of morals among the....

practice principles universal innate, we would all moral need to be proven diversity people: child sacrifice practiced by the Greeks or the Romans, the abandonment of the elderly in some tribes, etc..

However, it can create for himself new ...

simple ideas.

He criticized the scholastic notion of -: "We have indeed a vague idea of ​​what..., not an idea of ​​..." Further, he said that anyone who examines this idea "will find that he has absolutely- - [idea] that I do not know what subject it is quite unknown, and it assumes to be the support of the qualities that are capable of exciting simple ideas in our mind, qualities commonly called - [...] We give the name of this support material means or what is underneath that supports "

substance it does what it is no other accidents

Locke also raises the possibility of - qualities: the power to produce an -, as the power of the sun to --, or the power of the match to produce a fire. They are generally regarded as -, not as qualities of the object. But in fact, that these are - qualities. Locke discusses several operations of the mind: ..... Only man has it. Animals do not - on particular ideas. Locke comes to presenting - - , that we are combining simple ideas. He gives several examples: "the beauty, gratitude, a man, an army, the universe."

third effect bleach wax powers perception, memory, abstraction reason complex ideas

The primary qualities are those that are "- - from the body in a state it is, so it keeps them always, any change or alteration that the body comes to suffer." They are in "every part of matter." This is the extent, strength, shape, motion, number. Locke uses the example of - - . Coupons a grain of wheat in two: each party has always a certain extent, some form, etc..These PRIMARY qualities produce in us - - when we perceive them.

wholly inseparable wheat grain simple ideas,

exam text

John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), Book I, 'Innate Notions': i ; Book II, 'Ideas': i, xix-xxi ; Book IV, 'Knowledge and Opinion': ix-xii, xvii-xviii; xxi.

There is a foreshadowing of the doctrine of primary and secondary qualities in the ... While Descartes had used the example of -, used in Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding that of ....color and taste changes. Or no change on the kernel has been produced by the ram other than its shape and extent. So the only real thing, these are the primary qualities in the object.

Meditations of Descartes. wax almonds in a mortar

Book II: Ideas To answer this question, Locke uses the famous metaphor of the -- (--): "Let us suppose that in the beginning, the soul is ..., void of all -, without any idea of any kind. How did it come to receive -? [...] Where she draws all these materials that are like the back of all reasoning and all knowledge? "1. The answer to Locke, who founded his empire: "To this I answer in one word, from -: that is the foundation of - - , and that's where they get their first home ". This experience is one of the objects of the sensible world, as well as domestic operations of our minds. Both types of experience, external and internal, "provide the materials in our minds of all his thoughts," and are "the two sources from which all the ideas we have, or we can have -." Our senses are first affected in various ways by - - , resulting in a certain type of perception, and thus their minds. Thus we get the idea from white to yellow, cold, etc.., More generally, what we call sensible qualities. The - is the- - of our ideas.

empty table/later-blank slate tabula rasa called a vacuum characters ideas experience: all knowledge naturally external objects feeling \ primary source of

While in - Locke finished An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and published a fifty page advanced notice of it in French. (This was to provide the intellectual world on the continent with most of their information about the Essay until Pierre Coste's French translation appeared in 1704.) He also wrote and published his Epistola de Tolerentia in Latin. Richard Ashcraft in his Revolutionary Politics and Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1986) suggests that while in Holland Locke was not only finishing An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and nursing his health, he was closely associated with the - - in exile. The English government was much concerned with this group. They tried to get a number of them, including Locke, extradited to England. Locke's studentship at Oxford was taken away from him. In the meanwhile, the English intelligence service infiltrated the rebel group in Holland and effectively thwarted their efforts—at least for a while. While Locke was living in exile in Holland, Charles II died on ... and was succeeded by his brother—who became James II of England. Soon after this the rebels in Holland sent a force of soldiers under the Duke of Monmouth to England to try to overthrow James II. The revolt was crushed, Monmouth captured and executed (Ashcraft 1986). For a meticulous, if cautious review, of the evidence concerning Locke's involvement with the English rebels in exile see Roger Woolhouse's Locke: A Biography (2007).

exile English revolutionaries Feb. 6, 1685

Book IV, Knowledge of the Existence of Things Chapter ix-xi: Locke is much more optimistic about our capacity to know of the - of things than he is about our capacity to .... He presents his discussion of the knowledge of the existence of things into three parts.

existence know of their nature.

Care must be taken to distinguish the - in the mind and the - in bodies, "material - that produce these perceptions in the mind." It should not, in fact, "we figured (as it is perhaps too accustomed to do so) that our ideas are real - or of something - in the subject that produces them." In fact, "most of the ideas of sensation in our minds no more like something that ...., the names are similar to our ideas."

ideas qualities modifications resemblances inherent exists outside of us

Locke reduced the Essay on Human Understanding good and evil to pleasure and pain: the good is what ..., the evil which,,,. In a famously defined it this desire as a "-" (uneasiness): The desire is "the concern that a man feels in himself by the - of something that would give him pleasure if was -. '

increases the pleasure produces pain concern absence present

It is commonly believed that the secondary qualities are in things, and that what we see is the reality. It is believed for example that blood is... Another example: it seems extravagant to say that a second quality is not as heat in the fire. But our approach finger of flame we wrong. Yet no one would say that pain is actually a property from fire. Also the heat is not an actual quality of the fire. The heat is actually a movement of the particles that compose it, only this movement (which is a first quality) is real.

indeed red

His third line of attack, however, is his most interesting. Throughout the chapter, Locke formulates a long and detailed argument based on .... He presents a number of puzzling facts about our experience that can all best be explained by positing that there is an external world that is causing our ideas. Taken singly each one makes it a little more likely that there is an external world out there, but taken as a whole, Locke feels, they provide overwhelming evidence--so overwhelming that the inference is almost strong enough to be called knowledge. Locke brings up seven marks of our experience that can best be explained by positing an external world. The first is brought up in Chapter III, section 14. There is a certain vivacity to veridical perception that cannot be found, say, in memories or products of the imagination. In chapter XI, Locke offers six more empirical marks that distinguish this same set of ideas. In section four, he points out that we cannot get these ideas without the organ appropriate to them. No one born without the ability to hear, for example, can possibly have the idea of the sound of a French horn. Next, Locke notes that we are able to receive ideas of this sort only in certain situations. Though the organs remain constant, the possibility of experiences changes. It cannot, therefore, be the organs themselves that are responsible for producing these ideas. In section five, Locke discusses the passive nature of these ideas. The next empirical mark Locke brings forth involves pleasure and pain. Some ideas, Locke claims, cannot help but be followed by pleasure of pain. When we call up the memory of these ideas, however, there is no experience of pain or pleasure accompanying them. In section seven Locke points out yet another empirical feature: a certain subset of our ideas fit into a coherent pattern so that if we have one idea, we can, with great reliability, predict another one. Finally, not only is there a predictable correlation between the ideas of taste, vision, touch, sound, etc., but there is also a correlation between the ideas belonging to different experiencing subjects (that is, between different people). Analysis An argument based on inference to the best explanation does not add up to conclusive proof, something of which Locke is well aware. In fact, Locke seems to recognize that given his empiricism, together with his mediated theory of ideas, he can only hope to establish a strong likelihood for the existence of the external world. A certainty that precludes all skeptical doubt is, in principle, beyond his grasp. To see why this sub-certainty is all Locke could posit based on his other theories, it is necessary to ask how certain knowledge concerning the existence of the external world could ever be attained. There are only two ways for this to be done, neither of which is available to Locke. One method would be to attempt to prove the existence of the external world a priori, through reason and innate concepts. As an empiricist, however, this argument is unavailable to Locke. Locke's epistemology is founded on the idea that all of our knowledge of the (natural) world comes to us through our experiences (the one exception he makes is for the existence of God). If one is to know, with certainty, of the existence of the external world, it must be through one's experiences. There are two ways in which empirical knowledge comes to us. There is that which is immediately given to us through our experiences, and there is that which we infer as explanations for what is immediately given to us. The first sort of empirical knowledge, which is intuitive knowledge, can get us much closer to certainty than the second. However, since Locke has already told us that only ideas are ever presented to the mind, it is only through the second empirical means that he can arrive at any knowledge of the external world. However, arguing for an ontological claim by showing that the truth of this claim provides the best explanation for the available evidence ("the best" being always, at best, a provisional qualification) does not demonstrate the certainty of that claim, but rather its probability.

inference to the best explanation.

Locke continues to show how some particular ideas form in our mind. It is interesting to note his explanation of the genesis of the idea of ​​God. We get by - -of what happens in us the ideas of existence, life, knowledge, power, pleasure, happiness, etc.. Then "we extend each of these ideas by means of the one we have of the infinite and joining all these ideas together, we form our ...." The author of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding developed his famous theory of - - What is my personal identity? What is that I am a single person, even over the years, everything changed in me: my body, or growing older, my ideas, etc.. ? Answer: "- - personal identity." And "as far as this - can extend over the actions or thoughts already passed, so far extends the identity of that person: the self is now the same as it was then and this past action was made by the same course, the one who gave it to in the mind. " This is not the identity of -, but the identity of consciousness based on me. That is why it would be unfair to punishsubstance- - to what sleeping Socrates thought. Some ideas are - (when the mind takes a blow in itself, has a "full and clear perception"), others - (where this is not the case). Some ideas are - (when the mind is able to distinguish them from other similar ideas), others confused (when it is not the case).

internal observation complex idea of ​​God personal identity. consciousness based consciousness substance substance clear obscure distinct

Locke's monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great defenses of - - and concerns itself with determining the limits of - - in respect to a wide spectrum of topics. It thus tells us in some detail what one can legitimately claim to ... Locke's association with Anthony Ashley Cooper (later the....) led him to become successively a government - charged with collecting information about trade and colonies, economic writer, opposition political activist, and finally a - whose cause ultimately triumphed in the .... Among Locke's political works he is most famous for The Second Treatise of Government in which he argues that - resides in the people and explains the nature of - - in terms of natural rights and the social contract. He is also famous for calling for the separation of Church and State in his ... Much of Locke's work is characterized by opposition to -. This is apparent both on the level of the - - and on the level of institutions such as government and church. For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use....rather than simply accept the .. or be subject to superstition. He wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them. On the level of - it becomes important to distinguish the legitimate from the illegitimate functions of institutions and to make the corresponding distinction for the ... by these institutions. Locke believes that using reason to try to grasp the truth, and determine the legitimate functions of institutions will optimize human flourishing for the individual and society both in respect to its material and spiritual welfare. This in turn, amounts to following natural law and the fulfillment of the divine purpose for humanity.

modern empiricism human understanding know and what one cannot. First Earl of Shaftesbury) official revolutionary Glorious Revolution of 1688 sovereignty legitimate government Letter Concerning Toleration. authoritarianism individual person reason to search after truth opinion of authorities institutions uses of force

Or mind not only to welcome these ideas obtained through - - : the - of the mind (thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, willing, etc.). To take the object. As a result, new ideas -, and the origin of the latter is no longer the - but the reflection. In both cases, the idea is a perception, or of sensible bodies, or operations of the mind. This is why "having ideas, and perceptions have, one and the same thing."

passive sensation: operations emerge sensation

Definition of the idea as "a - that is in our mind when he thinks." While the - of the object is "the power or faculty that has to produce a - idea in mind." A distinction that has been made between idea v quality, Locke proposes a second: that between - qualities and - qualities.

perception quality certain primary secondary

One last issue which deserves mention is Locke's - - to the skeptic. It is tempting to read this response as supporting a - understanding of truth, which says that what it means for some proposition to be true is for it to be useful and.... There is some good textual evidence for this reading. At IV.ii.13 Locke remarks, "this - is as great as our happiness, or misery, beyond which, we have no concernment to know or to be." Later, at IV.xi.8, he says that our faculties, "serve us well enough, if they will but give us certain notice of those things which are - or - to us." A pragmatic understanding of truth, however, runs contrary to what, elsewhere in the Essay, is well-entrenched realism, grounded in a vigorous correspondence notion of truth (a proposition is true if and... only if it corresponds to reality). It would be odd, perhaps even incomprehensible, if Locke were here abandoning his strict realist line just to give a last response to the skeptic. It seems, therefore, far more likely that, rather than making the substantive claim that truth lies in efficacy, he is merely showing his lack of interest in skeptical concerns, or even his inability to take them seriously. He does not suggest that there may be no such a thing as the- - but only that whether or not we can conclusively prove that there is such a world .... In other words, he is stating his own unshakeable faith in realism regardless of rational proof, and adding the observation that, for all practical purposes, how we settle this issue is of no real concern. In some sense, his claim is that the issue is strictly philosophical; it will never change the way we behave or regard the world. We will never cease to act as if there is an external world of material bodies. Even the very fact that we do not act as if we take the skeptical doubts seriously is yet another sign of how overwhelmingly probable we feel the existence of the external world to be. Despite the alleged lack of interest with which Locke regards the problem of skepticism, it seems that on the basis of what he says in the Essay, a very compelling - stance can be constructed. Even the lack of interest to which he attests can be seen as adding one more gloss to the anti- skeptical argument.

pragmatic response ] pragmatist to be believed certainty convenient or inconvenient only if it corresponds to reality external world, does not particularly concern him anti-skeptical

Secondary qualities are those things in "the power to produce various - in us by means of their - qualities [range, size, etc.]." 1. This is the colour, sound, taste, etc.. The qualities come knocking our senses by the - of a particle insensitive. If the primary qualities are in -, and thus are similar to the - we have, secondary qualities are not really in things, and ideas that we do not correspond to reality.

sensations first action bodies ideas

Simple ideas are mixed in the - - perceived. Yet man can be easily -. He understands that the white and cold snow are - qualities simple: "nothing is more obvious to a man that ...he has of those simple ideas." These are "all the - of our knowledge." The mind can combine these simple ideas, and make -- "when the mind has once received these simple ideas, it has the power to .....hem together with an almost infinite variety, and thereby to form new complex ideas. "

sensible object distinguished distinct clear and distinct perception materials complex ideas repeat, compare, to unite t

If we have therefore also clear idea of ​​what the substance of a body, it is the same with respect to the substance of the spirit:- - But we are not allowed to conclude that we do not have a clear idea in their non-existence. This helps to refute -: although we have no idea what a - substance. But we have no longer that of a - substance.

the soul. materialism spiritual bodily

Nevertheless, some principles are - - . Can you imagine them to be because of their innate character? Locke questions the existence of - principles. Even a - such as "what is" is ignored by much of humanity, such as children. Counter-argument: it is - in their souls, but it does not - - -, they do not realize it. Locke shows that an idea is - means that the soul naturally - this idea is the meaning of this doctrine. So it can not be any innate idea -. In fact, the only thing Locke grants the innateness is the fact that the faculty of ....

universally recognized universal tautology innate see them innate sees unnoticed understanding is innate.