Locke Discussion Recap

the week of February 15th to 19th

Mr. John Locke in all his white-haired glory

Due to extensive attention on Descartes (and a few occurrences of wintry weather), our coverage of John Locke was unfortunately truncated. For future reference, however, Caitlyn and I will attempt to recount the main points from our two classes on the Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

• John Locke was strongly egalitarian; he was opposed to the Cartesian value of reason because in his view, this simply replaced one set of dogmatic beliefs with another.

• Locke was a empiricist, believing that humans learn everything through experience. Empiricism rejects the notion of an "a priori" idea (something the mind can know without experience). Rationalists, such as Descartes, used universality--the idea that people all share some common knowledge--as the basis for innate ideas. Empiricists, such as Locke, refute this argument, citing "children and idiots" as counter examples.

• In lieu of innate ideas, Locke instead presents the idea of "tabula rasa." Though commonly translated from Latin as "blank slate," this concept does not suggest that the human mind is a void, but rather that it has the potential to receive, store, and develop ideas.

• In Locke's view, the human mind has two means by which to receive ideas: sensation and reflection. Sensation, he argues, is passive; the mind is involuntarily affected by the senses. In contrast, reflection is active internal process, in which the mind considers ideas previously acquired through sensation.

• To illustrate the difference between complex and simple ideas, we used the example of an apple. When one looks at an apple and perceives it to be an apple, this is actually a complex idea. A complex idea is a the combination of multiple simple ideas (for example, color, smell, visual appearance, etc.). These simple ideas cannot be created or destroyed; they are passive, wholly dependent on the object. Once the human mind acquires a simple idea, (for example, the apple is red) this simple idea cannot be "un-known." Conversely, this additionally means that humans cannot fabricate simple ideas (for example, humans cannot conceive of a color outside of the understood spectrum of light).

• A quality is the property of an object that causes an idea in the human mind. All objects have both primary and secondary qualities. Primary qualities, such as solidity, bear resemblance to the object itself. Primary qualities cannot be changed. Secondary qualities, such as colors, sounds, tastes, and textures, resemble the primary qualities; however, they are malleable. It is with secondary qualities that humans generally interact, largely because they are easier to perceive.

Hopefully, this was a helpful summation. Please let us know if there are any questions or glaring errors in our report.

--Dancin' Anson and Caitlyn "Socks" Kennedy