Classification of Ideas in Locke's Essay

Usual Interpretation

The usual interpretation of Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding is that he tried to show that all of men's complex ideas were formed by a process of compounding simple ideas. Some commentators say this represents his actual approach o t human knowledge, others say that while parts of the Essay are written in this manner it does not represent his final views. All agree that if this compositionalism is Locke's position then it is inadequate and contains numerous contradictions. It is the thesis of this paper that Locke never was a compositionalist in the required sense and that therefore the inadequacies and contradictions do not exist. Since the compositionalists interpret the Essay mainly on the basis of the classification of ideas in the first edition rather than that in the fourth it will be necessary to examine the two classifications in the Essay to see which does represent Locke's position. It will be found that the fourth edition classification represents his views and that this refutes compositionalism.

Locke's Ontology of Relations

Locke Studies ◽

10.5206/ls.2017.870 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 ◽

pp. 61-86

Author(s):

Samuel C. Rickless

Keyword(s):

Human Beings ◽

Theory Of Ideas ◽

The World ◽

Human Understanding ◽

Empiricist Theory ◽

Mental Acts

In his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke’s primary aim is to provide an empiricist theory of ideas that can support interesting results about the nature of language and knowledge. Within this theory, Locke distinguishes between simple ideas and complex ideas (E II.ii.1: 119). Roughly, an idea is complex if it has other ideas as parts; otherwise, it is simple. For Locke, as is well known, all simple ideas derive from sensation (perception through sight, taste, smell, hearing, or touch) or reflection (a form of introspection directed at mental acts) (E II.i.2–4: 104–106). Aetiology also plays a role in Locke’s classification of complex ideas: ideas of modes, ideas of substances, and ideas of relations. All complex ideas are formed by a voluntary act of combination or composition. Ideas of modes, such as numbers, beauty, and theft (E II.xii.5: 165) are formed without considering whether the combinations conform to real patterns existing in the world (E II.xi.6: 158, E II.xxii.1: 288, E II.xxxi.3: 376). Ideas of substances (such as human beings, sheep, and armies—E II.xii.6: 165), by contrast, are formed with a desire ‘to copy Things, as they really do exist’ (E II.xxxi.3: 377). Ideas of relations are like ideas of modes (E II.xxxi.14: 383–84), except that their aetiology includes, in addition to the mental act of composition, the distinct mental act of comparison on the basis of some respect or dimension (E II.xi.4: 157, E II.xxv.1: 319).

Locke on Enthusiasm and the Association of Ideas

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume IX ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198852452.003.0003 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 75-104

Author(s):

Kathryn Tabb

Keyword(s):

General Mechanism ◽

Fourth Edition ◽

Human Understanding ◽

The Will ◽

Locke added two new chapters to the fourth edition of his Essay concerning Human Understanding (1700): ‘Of the Association of Ideas’, and ‘Of Enthusiasm’. When examined together, these chapters reveal that Locke was increasingly attentive to—and troubled by—the potential of mad ideas and pathological principles to thwart the reasonableness at the heart of his political and theological projects. While Locke saw religious zealotry as a vice, he attributed its ultimate causes not to a sinfulness of the will but to a disease of the understanding. Unlike later theorists who would treat the association of ideas as a general mechanism of cognition, Locke saw it as a pathological force that could explain the failures of otherwise rational people to respond to evidence. This technical account of madness is a linchpin not only for Locke’s theory of enthusiasm, but also for his mature views on toleration.

Toward ‘Perfect Collections of Properties’: Locke on the Constitution of Substantial Sorts

Canadian Journal of Philosophy ◽

10.1080/00455091.1999.10715991 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 551-593 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Lionel Shapiro

Keyword(s):

The Other ◽

Fourth Edition ◽

Experimental Knowledge ◽

Human Understanding ◽

Summing up the lessons of the final book of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke describes two ‘ways to enlarge our Knowledge, as far as we are capable.’ One involves the cultivation of our capacity for demonstrative reasoning, the other the proper framing of the ideas from which any such reasoning must issue and on which mere ‘experimental Knowledge’ (IV .iii.29: 560) is likewise founded. Under the latter heading, we are urged to aim not only for ‘clear’ and ‘distinct’ ideas, but also for ‘perfect’ ones. Finally, a laconic insertion in the fourth edition specifies how the perfection of one class of ideas is to be pursued:And if they be specific Ideas of Substances, we should endeavor also to make them as complete as we can, whereby I mean, that we should put together as many simple Ideas, as being constantly observed to co-exist, may perfectly determine the Species…. (IV.xii.14: 648)

The Cartesian Method of Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding

Canadian Journal of Philosophy ◽

10.1080/00455091.1975.10716077 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 579-601 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

P. A. Schouls

Keyword(s):

General Knowledge ◽

Degrees Of Belief ◽

Human Knowledge ◽

Human Understanding ◽

Propositional Form ◽

The Right ◽

The Way

Locke tells us that his purpose inAn Essay Concerning Human Understandingis “to inquire into the original, certainty, and extent of human knowledge, together with the grounds and degrees of belief, opinion, and assent” (1.1.2). He provides a characterization ofgeneralhuman knowledge as universal truths in propositional form. In doing this he presupposes a striking doctrine about the “extent” of man's general knowledge, and he draws freely upon a theory meant to explain both the materials (the “original”) out of which this knowledge is constructed and the way in which it is constructed. He holds that the “certainty” which characterizes general knowledge is obtained only if we proceed from the right materials or foundations in the right way, and that the right foundations themselves can only be obtained in one specific way. In this study I try to show how much more Cartesian Locke is than many commentators would allow. I argue that on Locke's own view the way to obtain the foundations for general knowledge is that of Cartesiananalysis,and the way to construct general knowledge once these foundations have been obtained is that of Cartesiansynthesis.

JOHN LOCKE ON THE CARE OF THE NEWBORN INFANT (1684)

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.64.2.237 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 64 (2) ◽

pp. 237-237

Author(s):

T. E. C.

Keyword(s):

Olive Oil ◽

Newborn Infant ◽

John Locke ◽

Red Wine ◽

Weak Condition ◽

Newborn Baby ◽

Almond Oil ◽

Human Understanding ◽

Medical Interest

John Locke (1632-1704), physician and philosopher, is best known for his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). His reputation as a philosopher has overshadowed the extent of his medical interests. Locke's journals between 1678 and 1698 contain thousands of items of medical interest. An entry in his journal for September 1684 contained the following recommendations for the care of the newborn infant.1 1. Soon after birth the baby can be given 1 or 2 spoonfuls of syrup of violets with almond oil, to loosen the bowels and keep it from convulsive colic. Or else distilled olive oil can be mixed with sugar. 2. If the newborn baby is in a weak condition you can blow on it the smell of chewed onions and cloves; smear its nostrils and lips with Cinnamon water; press warm slices of meat on its head and anus; wrap in bandages soaked in red wine and place in a bath composed of water or beer and fresh butter. If the baby is lively give a little after a mixture of 1 spoonful of distilled almond oil and syrup of Cowslip flowers and ½ spoonful of wine tempered with sugar, so that it can purge itself properly. 3. As soon as it begins to feed on pap, give it for the first few days a little powder of Marchion. 4. If it is weak apply to the region of the heart a cloth coaked with warm Embryon. The best ways to stimulate its strength are baths, putting warm wine on its head, placing hot meat on its chest, smearing its nose and lips with cinnamon water, putting onions near its nostrils, etc.

Locke—Religion—Equality

The Review of Politics ◽

10.1017/s0034670500034641 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 67 (3) ◽

pp. 419-431 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Michael P. Zuckert

Keyword(s):

Proper Understanding ◽

The Past ◽

Human Understanding ◽

Philosophical Writings

Jeremy Waldron's much noted book, God, Locke, and Equality, has put the topic of “God and Equality in Locke” at the center of many perhaps most, discussions of Locke these days. I am going to raise some critical objections to Waldron's interpretations, but all the more reason to begin by noting the very many things about this book that I admire.First, he rejects the insistence by many of the most outspoken Locke scholars that a proper understanding of Locke—or any philosopher of the past—must be purely historical—that it must have nothing to do with us or our concerns, questions, or problems. Professor Waldron cuts through this claim as mere arbitrary assertion.Second, many Locke scholars, often some of the same ones, insist that Locke's political writings must be understood in isolation from his philosophic writings, especially from his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Locke's editor, Peter Laslett, set the tone long ago when he pronounced judgment: “Locke did not write as a philosopher, applying to politics the implications of his views of reality as a whole.” Rather, according to Laslett, Locke appealed to or drew off of preexisting “modes of discourse.” This approach makes it very difficult to understand Locke as an integral personality, much less as a coherent author or as a thinker to be taken seriously. Waldron thus reopens the lines of communication between Locke's political and his philosophical writings and makes Locke a significant thinker, not just a corpse for the historians.

Jonathan Edwards and “The Way of Ideas”

Harvard Theological Review ◽

10.1017/s0017816000009652 ◽

1966 ◽

Vol 59 (2) ◽

pp. 153-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Claude A. Smith

Keyword(s):

John Locke ◽

Jonathan Edwards ◽

Human Understanding ◽

History Of ◽

The Way

That Jonathan Edwards was greatly influenced by the writings of John Locke scarcely needs asserting. Edwards himself regarded his reading of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding as the major intellectual event of his youth. His major writings and private notebooks abound with comments and reflections on matters discussed by Locke. What is fascinating concerning the history of Edwardsean scholarship, however, is that the decisive significance of Locke, for Edwards, has been elucidated only very recently, in the writings of the renowned Puritan scholar, the late Perry Miller.

Locke, John: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Kindlers Literatur Lexikon (KLL) ◽

10.1007/978-3-476-05728-0_14768-1 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-3

Author(s):

Harald Landry

Keyword(s):

Human Understanding ◽

John Locke (1632-1704): An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

10.1037/10885-018 ◽

2006 ◽

pp. 232-255

Author(s):

Benjamin Rand

Keyword(s):

John Locke ◽

Human Understanding ◽

Locke’s Experiential Persons

Experience Embodied ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190086114.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 51-94

Author(s):

Anik Waldow

Keyword(s):

Human Understanding ◽

Accessible Domain ◽

Human Capacity ◽

Self Formation

The second chapter examines Locke’s account of self-formation as it is presented in Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693). It will be argued that, for Locke, the evaluative perspective that arises when confronted with other people’s expressions of praise and blame crucially underpins the human capacity to think of themselves as persons. The second half of this chapter applies the results of this discussion to Locke’s account of personhood, as developed in the second edition of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1694). The aim of this is to demonstrate that even here it holds that the contents of what figures in our self-conception as persons are determined by the actions we perform in the publicly accessible domain.