Flashcards
Locke on Ideas
Flashcards do conjunto (22)
- 1Locke is an empiricist. Ideas: what the mind perceives in its self or is an immediate object of perception/thought/an understanding is an idea.The mind is a blank slate and we gain everything we know from experience. We make observations of external, sensible objects; the internal operations of our minds are perceived/reflected on by ourselves.
Experience leads to knowledge. - 2Upon ideas, for Locke there are two main uses. 1. When you think about a cat, in thinking about it, you are employing the idea of a cat; object of thought.2. When you perceive or see a cat, you have the idea of a cat; seeing a cat produces the idea in you.
Object of perception.
There is an emphasis on 'immediate' upon this. - 3Locke is seen as a conceptual realist; objects have primary and secondary qualities. PQ: things (perceived or not) in the things themselves. SQ: are mind-dependent; like sensations, they do not exist unperceived. Thus we see no gaps or chasms in the material world. (Conceptualism).Scepticism: we cannot know of the existence of mind-independent reality. The senses nor reason can enable us to know of the external world.
Humility: even if we know that external objects exist, we have little insight into their underlying nature; we only know that there are things there. - 4Locke is seen as being a humble anti-Cartesian (we have assurance from our senses; they do err in info they give us) and anti-Sceptic (no body can be sceptical, to be unsure of existence of things we see and feel).Lockean humility: various statements which demonstrate the possible knowledge we could have but do not actually have. There is a potential for such knowledge, but Locke is humble to this in that he does not explicitly state us as having it.
- 5Realism and Scepticism If reality is genuinely mind-independent then we cannot know it, it would seem.Locke does believes that reality is mind-independent and thus he cannot avoid scepticism as if this is the case we would not be able to know it upon scepticism.
- 6Challenges for Locke: To explain how empiricism and experience are compatible with realism, thus solving Berkeley's puzzle. vs. Berkeley's perspective...Empiricism is incompatible with realism; if you are an empiricist you should really be an idealist.
If reality is mind-independent, scepticism is inevitable. However, if true then we know about it easily as we know our own minds.
This is Berkeley's mentalism.
So...empiricism does not lead to scepticism because it destroys the realism which is the true source of scepticism. - 7Locke is committed to ideas as being intermediaries between the mind and body. He was not committed to the epistemological consequences leading to scepticism about the external world.Ayers on Locke:
Locke's 'ideas' when not occurring in actual sensations/reflections are sensory images, quasi-sensations or mental images (to have an idea is evidently for Locke to be in a state of consciousness).
Ideas are blank effects in us; these represent external things. - 8Simple and Complex Ideas Ideas and the senses they produce in the mind enter by the senses simple and mixed. Our perception of our ideas is compounded but contains one uniform appearance and are not distinguishable into different ideas.Simple ideas are suggested and furnished to the mind by sensation and reflection only.
The understanding stores these and can then make complex ideas; however it cannot create (or destroy) the simple ideas. - 9There is a variety of simple and complex ideas. Complex: Modes: cannot exist independently. Substances: objects; can exist independently, e.g. gold Relations: considerations and comparisons of one idea with another, e.g. husband, causeThese are Real, Adequate and True ideas.
Note that for Kant a simple idea is a natural sign or is representative of a regular cause. - 10Is there an Epistemological Pay Off? Do simple ideas in fact agree with the things themselves? The mind could not do this itself hence the ideas must be a product of things operating in the mind in a natural way. For this to happen there must have been some experience of the ideas.Thus the ideas are not fictions of our fancies.
They represent to us things under those appearances which they are fitted to produce in us. - 11Problem of Generality It is impossible for every particular thing to have a distinct peculiar name; words become general by being made signs of general ideas. Through abstraction they can then make determination of various existences.Berkeley's Attack on Abstraction:
He denies being able to abstract qualities which it is impossible for to exist separately; in themselves ideas are always particular.
Lockean abstract ideas are impossible because they are indeterminate/inconsistent.
There are no abstract general ideas. - 12Berkeley is so concerned with this because he believes that it is a key part of Locke's realism (which he rejects based upon his idealist views).Berkeley sees the idea that sensible objects can exist unperceived as an application of the doctrine of abstraction.
- 13Interpretation 1 If abstract ideas are mental images, then B's attack is justified but Lockean ideas are not. Abstract ideas are not inconsistent as objects of consideration and what Locke calls abstraction is selective attention.Interpretation 2
Even if abstract ideas are images, the attack fails. Lockean abstract ideas are an aspect of an image; the best defence then is that Locke's doctrine is different to B's own. - 14Innate Ideas Locke does believe that there are no innate ideas. There are no innate principles thus no innate ideas. He argues that there are no principles universally agreed upon by all mankind; this would not prove innateness anyway though. No proposition can be in the mind as it would not be conscious of it.Responses?
- No assumption of innate principles.
- Some concepts cannot be derived from experience.
- Not all concepts can be learned.
- Some of his ideas highlight that some capacities must be innate, i.e. abstraction.
- Empiricism cannot account for language acquisition. - 15Ideas and Qualities Idea - immediate perception The power to produce an idea in our mind is the quality of the subject wherein the power is. (Pin question) Bodies produce ideas in us by impulse.Locke makes a distinction between primary and secondary qualities...
- 16Primary - Inseperable from the body. - Constantly keeps despite alterations. - Mind-independent (things in themselves). - Solidity (main idea), extension, figure, motion, rest, numberSecondary
- There are powers to produce various sensations by the PQs
These are colours, sounds and tastes.
When we perceive a PQ, there is some motion carried by our nerves (animal spirits) to our brains (seat of sensation) to produce our ideas.
Ideas of SQ are also produced by operations of insensible particles on our senses. - 17Question of Resemblance Ideas of PQs of bodies are resemblances of them and their patterns do exist in the bodies themselves.Ideas produced in us by SQs have no resemblance of them at all.
Nothing like our ideas exist in the bodies; they are only a power to produce the sensations in us. (Pin question; the pain does not exist in the pin) - 18Locke's Argument for the Distinction (Assumption he was arguing for this). a) Relativity Fire argument: you would not think the idea of warmth and not sensation of pain is in the fire. Water can feel hot and cold at different times; these sensations are the increase of diminuition of motion of minute parts of the bodies caused by corpuscles of any other body.b) Inference to the best explanation
Porphyre looks red and white in light, but no colour in dark.
The ideas of colour cannot be in the porphyre as they do not change. It produces the ideas in us.
Almond example (changes when you grind it). - 19Three Interpretations Sensationist: PQs are not sensations; they are mind-independent. SQs are sensations and these are mind-dep; we are conscious of this.Dispositionalist
SQs are mind-ind powers/dispositions that objects have to produce to certain sensations in us. PQs are not dispositions to produce ideas in us.
Explanatory
we understand what bodies are and how they act in terms of PQs; SQs are different because they lack explanatory role of PQs. - 20Ayers on the status of Locke's Distinction He perceives this as a reasonable hypothesis about the nature of reality. PQs supply our only understanding both of what external objects actually are and of what they do. PQs are privileged.PQs as supplying our only understanding of what external objects are:
Lockean PQs are fundamental spatial properties; these are fundamental to our grasp of:
how external objects are individuated and how they can be mind-ind.
This is not true of SQs. - 21PQs as supplying our understanding of what external objects do: - They are powers that external objects possess, including powers to produce sensations in us by impulse; objects are only intelligible to us as the powers they possess in virtue of PQs. ...- PQs occupy a more fundamental place in our understanding of the behaviour of external objects than SQs.
SQs explanatorily alert but their explanatory role is less fundamental and they can themselves be explained by reference to PQs. - 22Problem of Acquisition How could experience play a role in making available to us the conception of such an object?Solidity comes from touch and we receive this the strongest.
The remaining results of ideas we gain from more than one sense.
These make perceivable impressions.
Informações
- Descrição
- HMP FlashCards sobre Locke on Ideas, criado por Karina De-Bourne em 01-06-2014.
- Criado por
- Karina De-Bourne · jun 2014
- Atualizado
- 19 fev 2016
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