Locke's ontology
In Lex Newman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Locke's. Cambridge University Press (2007)
| Abstract | One of the deepest tensions in Locke’s Essay, a work full of profound and productive conflicts, is one between Locke’s metaphysical tendencies—his inclination to presuppose or even to argue for substantive metaphysical positions—and his devout epistemic modesty, which seems to urge agnosticism about major metaphysical issues. Both tendencies are deeply rooted in the Essay. Locke is a theorist of substance, essence, quality. Yet, his favorite conclusions are epistemically pessimistic, even skeptical; when it comes to questions about how the world is constituted, our understandings cannot penetrate very far. Locke seems torn between metaphysics and modesty, between dogmatism and skepticism. This chapter will consider two specific examples of this sort of tension. The first involves the ontology of body, and the second, the ontology of mind. The conflict concerning bodily natures looks like this: As is well-known, Locke typically describes bodies in the terms of the corpuscularian science of his day, as exemplified especially by the natural philosopher Robert Boyle. Locke’s characterizations of the real essences of bodies are mechanist. He envisions them as corpuscularian textures-- spatial arrangements of particles possessing size. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,664 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesRobert A. Wilson (forthcoming). Primary and Secondary Qualities. In Matthew Stuart (ed.), Blackwell Companion to Locke. Blackwell.
Keith Allen (2010). Locke and the Nature of Ideas. Archiv fur Geschishte der Philosophie 92 (3):236-255.
J. J. MacIntosh (2005). Boyle and Locke on Observation, Testimony, Demonstration and Experience. Croatian Journal of Philosophy 5 (2):275-288.
Dan Kaufman (2007). Locke on Individuation and the Corpuscular Basis of Kinds. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 75 (3):499–534.
Graham Faiella (2006). John Locke: Champion of Modern Democracy. Rosen Pub. Group.
I. C. Tipton (ed.) (1977). Locke on Human Understanding: Selected Essays. Oxford University Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads37 ( #31,859 of 549,005 )Recent downloads (6 months)4 ( #19,181 of 549,005 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
