Locke and Empiricism
1632-1704
Possible innate ideas
Mathematics, Geometry (the perfect circle)
Moral truths-- justice, virtue, etc
Fundamental concepts-“truth”
God
If ideas are universal, that does not
show them to be innate
It may be that apparently universal ideas
derive from a common experience of
human beings. We don’t need to suppose
that just because an idea is universally
held, that it is innate.
No ideas are universal
If there were innate ideas, we would all
have them
But idiots and young children do not even
very simple innate ideas, such as
“whatever is, is”
Therefore, there are no innate ideas
We get our ideas from experience
Some of our ideas, like “bitter,” “yellow”
come from sensation
Other ideas, “thinking,” “imagining” come
from reflection.
So-called innate ideas are derived from
these two sources as well
We can reflect on our own ideas
When we “see” that ideas correspond, we
get our idea of truth. Also:
Black is necessarily darker than grey
2+2=4
There cannot be a round square
You come to know these necessary truths by
understanding the relations your ideas
have to one another
Sense perception allows us to
know the world
Perception is a causal process. Real
physical things causally produce in us
ideas of sense
Some aspects of these physical things are
mirrored in our ideas. These are primary
qualities
Some aspects of physical things are only
powers to produce ideas in us. These are
secondary qualities
Consider a lemon
I perceive a quality, a sour taste. But the
sensed sourness is not in the lemon itself.
What is in the lemon is a power to produce
a sour taste in us.
To say a lemon is sour is to say only that it
has a power to produce in us a sour taste.
Primary qualities never go away
Pulverize a grain of wheat and it will eventual
become invisible. But it will not lose the primary
qualities of solidity, extension, figure, motion,
rest and number.
Secondary qualities are everything else: color,
smell, taste, sounds, etc
You can explain why we perceive the secondary
qualities by means of the primary.
Secondary qualities suffer from
perceptual variation
To one hand a tub of water is hot, to
another cold. It cannot be hot and cold at
the same time.
This paradox is removed once we accept
hot and cold as subjective sensations—
both caused by the primary qualities of the
water (the motion of the molecules)
Two Arguments against the
primary/secondary quality
distinction
Perceptual relativity applies to
primary qualities too
The size and shape are perceptual
qualities that change relative to the
observer
So if perceptual relativity shows that
secondary qualities are subjective, it also
shows that primary qualities are subjective
Primary Qualities cannot exist w/o
secondary qualities
Whatever is inconceivable is impossible
It is impossible to conceive or imagine a
shape without color
Therefore it is impossible for there to be a
shape without color
A similar argument can be applied to
tangible shape