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

Canadian Journal of Philosophy 29 (4):551-593 (1999)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Locke's claims about the "inadequacy" of substance-ideas can only be understood once it is recognized that the "sort" represented by such an idea is not wholly determined by the idea's descriptive content. The key to his compromise between classificatory conventionalism and essentialism is his injunction to "perfect" the abstract ideas that serve as "nominal essences." This injunction promotes the pursuit of collections of perceptible qualities that approach ever closer to singling out things that possess some shared explanatory-level constitution. It is in view of this norm regulating natural-historical inquiry that a substance-idea represents a sort for which some such constitution serves as the "real essence," i.e. as that on which all the sort's characteristic "properties" depend.

Similar books and articles

Locke on human understanding: selected essays.I. C. Tipton (ed.) - 1977 - New York: Oxford University Press.
General ideas and the knowability of essence: Interpretations of Locke's theory of knowledge.Maurilio Lovatti - 2004 - Dissertation, Oxford, Tercentenary John Locke Conference (April 2-4, 2004)
Locke on the propria of body.Michael Jacovides - 2007 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 15 (3):485 – 511.
The Puzzles of Material Constitution.L. A. Paul - 2010 - Philosophy Compass 5 (7):579-590.
Two kinds of intentionality in Locke.Lionel Shapiro - 2010 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 91 (4):554-586.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
912 (#13,967)

6 months
93 (#39,214)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Lionel Shapiro
University of Connecticut

Citations of this work

Temporal externalism and our ordinary linguistic practices.Henry Jackman - 2005 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 86 (3):365-380.
The Contours of Locke’s General Substance Dualism.Graham Clay - 2022 - Journal of Modern Philosophy 4 (1):1-20.
Locke vs. Boyle: The real essence of corpuscular species.Jan-Erik Jones - 2007 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 15 (4):659 – 684.
Global expressivism as global subjectivism.Lionel Shapiro - 2021 - Philosophical Studies 179 (3):777-799.

View all 10 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.John Locke - 1979 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 169 (2):221-222.
Scientific Explanation.P. Kitcher & W. C. Salmon - 1992 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 43 (1):85-98.
Predicate meets property.Mark Wilson - 1982 - Philosophical Review 91 (4):549-589.

View all 20 references / Add more references