Abstract

While it is traditionally held in the Western philosophy that the secondary qualities do give us knowledge of objects, Locke, being inspired by Galileo Galilei, maintains that both primary and secondary qualities can yield knowledge of objects even though the former are distinguished from the latter in specific ways. However, since Locke is unable to free himself from the idea that secondary qualities yield knowledge of objects, he fails to defend his view successfully and, moreover, it is generally accepted that Berkeley’s view according to which there are no essential differences between the two sorts of qualities provides a more tenable perspective. This paper aims to gesture towards a remedy for the aforementioned mistake of Locke and assess various epistomological views in connection with the subject matter at hand