PHIL 200B ● Today – Locke's Essay concerning human understanding ● Method ( ) ● Locke's Empiricism – Against innate ideas/principles. – Ideas of Sensation and Reflections. – Distinction between Primary and Secondary qualities. ● Complex ideas of Modes and of Substances.

Locke's Essay: Aims ● Locke's Purpose: – “to inquire into the origin, certainty and extent of human knowledge, together with the grounds and degrees of belief, opinion, and assent” (1.1.2) ● Draw limitations to the extent of human knowledge – “It is of great use to the sailor to the length of his line, though he cannot fathom the depths of the ocean with it”. ● He says like the line, our mind is not designed to fathom deep parts of philosophy, but this does not matter. Just like the line, it still is in use.

Method ● Historical Plain method ( ) – Investigate the origin and character of the ideas inhabiting the mind. – Investigate the nature of the knowledge we acquire on the basis of our ideas (its certainty, evidence and extent). – Investigate the grounds of faith/opinion – i.e. The assent we give to propositions not strictly known to be true. ● Two aspects of Locke's epistemology: – An account of the materials of knowledge and opinion: Ideas. (esp. in Book 2 of the essay). – An account of the epistemic status of the judgements we make (knowledge vs probable opinion vs mere opinion). ● Success in aspect 1 leads to a basis for success for success in aspect 2. – If you can be sufficiently clear about the contents concerning which you make judgements, it is relatively straightforward to account for the epistemic status of those judgements. ● He goes through all the ideas, and characterises them, one by one. This is a very different approach to philosophy.

Locke's Empiricism ● Locke's view: All our ideas derive from experience, which comes in two varieties. This means that nothing comes with the mind. There is no such thing as an innate idea. – Sensory experience: Observation of external 'sensible' objects. ● Mind is passive. – Reflection: Observation of internal operations of the mind. ● The two general kinds of internal operations are: Perception and Volition. ● The modes thereof (e.g. Sensory perception, and memory, compounding; e.g. Fear and desire). ● Mind is active. ● To Locke all thoughts require consciousness of the idea. ● This picture opposes rationalist epistemology's – Consider Descartes' investment in innate ideas (perceived by a pure rational intuition). ● There seems to be some imbalance here in that sensory idea's is given more importance, in that it is necessary to trigger any idea. e.g. instinct.

Against Innate Principles (1.2) ● The central Argument in favour of innate principles: Universal Consent. – Innate ideas is the way to explain universal consent to some ideas. ● Locke's says that this premise is false due to the fact that, for instance: – Even the law of non-contradiction fails to command universal consent. – e.g. Children, must “learn” of this principle, later in life. And this means that it is not innate, for if it was you would consent to it at birth.

Of Ideas (Book 2) ● Simple Ideas are the building blocks from which all knowledge and opinion derive. – Sensation and Reflection are the exclusive sources. – Simple ideas would be things like: size, shape, color. ● Long digression on the question of whether or not the mind always thinks [ii ]: As opposed to Descartes who says that thought is the essence of mind. So a mind HAS to always be thinking. ● Locke's view: – Thought consists in having ideas. – The mind is always conscious of its own thought processess. (An “unpercieved idea” is a contradiction of terms). – There are times when we are not conscious of any ideas – e.g. Dreamless sleep. – Therefore the mind doesn't always think. ● Why is this important? ● Ans: Descartes thinks that thought is the essence of mind/soul (i.e. mind/soul is defined as thinking substance). In Locke's view, this cannot be.

Solidity (II.4) ● Solidity is a simple idea derived from sense (touch). – Defined as the body's resistance to penetration. ● Locke about solidity: “This, of all other, seems the idea most intimately connected with and essential to body, so as nowhere else to be found or imagined, but only in matter”. (II.4.1). – Thus solidity is distinct from space (extension), since space doesn't resist penetration. (Against Descartes). – Solidity distinct from extension: ● Extension of body: continuity of solid, separable, movable parts. ● Extension of Space: continuity of non solid, insuperable, immovable parts. ● Impulse, resistance and protrusion (i.e. The effect of collision) depend upon solidity. ● Solidity is the salient property of mechanical interactions!! ● What it means to be solid is that, there is no penetration without displacement.

Primary and Secondary Qualities (II.8) ● Idea: The “immediate object of perception”; “whatever the mind perceives in itself”. (II.8.8.) ● Quality: The power of any object to produce and idea in our mind (Ibid.) ● Primary qualities: Solidity, extension, figure, mobility, texture eg. – Utterly inseperable from bodies. – Found in all bodies, whether or not someone percieved them. – Retained under division. – Resemble the ideas we have of them ● Secondary qualities: colours, smells, tastes, sounds etc. – Nothing in the object themselves but powers to produce various sensations in us by their primary qualities.

Primary and Secondary Qualities cont. ● Arguments for distinction: – Ideas of secondary qualities shade off into purely affective ideas. – Alteration in secondary qualities can be shown to depend upon alterations in the primary qualities. ● The Color and taste of an almond changes if you pound it, but all it really does is change the shape and texture.