which topic do you all think would be the best to approach? It’s gotta be a 2000 word essay. let me know what you think
One topic asked whether Locke’s distinction between primary and secondary
qualities can withstand Berkeley’s criticism.
A second topic asked about the conceptions of space and time of Locke and
Berkeley: which more satisfactory?
The third topic asks whether Locke succeeds in giving any reason to believe
that our ideas accurately represent objects ourside of the mind.
ok i’m going with the first one. does anyone think Lockes qualites can stand up to Berkley’s criticims?
Here is a super rough rough of whats going on. Its like 700 words.I hate this Essay i have no interest in it and I don’t know what I should. Anyone have some suggestions for arguement?
Throughout book two, Locke informs us that there is a crucial difference between the Ideas we derive from sensation and reflection. Some of these ideas reiterate their cases out in the world, while others don’t. Those ideas that resemble their causes in the world, he calls primary qualities. It is first important to understand what Locke means by a quality; a quality is a power in objects to create ideas in us, similar to something like property. These primary qualities have two characteristics. All objects in the world have got certain basic primary qualities and there is nothing you can do to take away these primary qualities. Some examples of Primary qualities would be size, shape, and velocity. Every single object out there possesses these properties. If one were to take any object you could manipulate the primary qualities, but in the end it still has some type of primary qualities. According to Locke these qualities exist in the external world in a fashion that loosely corresponds to how we perceive them. These qualities are the properties of all material objects, for example, one can’t imagine an apple without shape. This is because the shape of the apple is a primary quality, and it exists unperceived by beings. Secondary qualities include things such as colour, odor, smell, and taste. According to Locke there is nothing in the world that corresponds to our ideas of these properties. These qualities are not vital to the identification of any object, and don’t exist in things themselves. Locke believes that it was primary qualities that laid the foundation for knowledge. However, secondary qualities are capable of no such thing, they are merely effects of primary qualities on our senses.
Locke believes that what we often proclaim to know about the world, is more or less the way we perceive it. “To discover the nature of our ideas the better, and to discourse of them intelligibly, it will be convenient to distinguish them as they are ideas of perceptions in our minds; and as they are modifications of matter in the bodies that cause such perceptions in us: that so we may not think that they are exactly the mages and resemblances something inherent in the subjectâ€1 He is arguing against naïve realism, which says that one’s perceptions are exact representations of the objects they are perceiving. Locke believes this theory of knowledge was not accessible, and by distinguishing between primary and secondary qualities separates justified and unjustified knowledge. The stance behind his argument was that the qualities of particular objects have the ability to produce ideas in us via our perception of them. Secondary qualities cannot be sensed, and thus are not descriptions of particular properties in an object.
Berkeley is an idealist, he believes that everything that exists is either a mind, or is dependant for its existence upon a mind. He was also an immaterialist; matter does not exist Ordinary physical ideas are comprised only of ideas, which are inherently mental. Berkeley has two argument that criticizes Locke’ distinction between Primary, and Secondary qualities. The first is his inseparability argument, which simply claims that it is impossible for there to be any kind of distinction between primary and secondary qualities. His reasoning behind the impossibility of this is that anything that cannot be imagined is impossible. It is with this statement that his criticism fails to overcome Locke’s analysis. Just because one has an inability to imagine something does not mean that it is impossible. There are many things that are possible that we can’t in fact imagine. Insisting that because one simply can’t picture the existence of something in their head does not mean that you can dismiss it as impossible. He then introduces the Variability argument. He interprets Locke as claiming that secondary qualities are the ones that very among people, and different situations. Berkeley in turn takes this proposition and says that all the properties Locke says are primary, such as shape, and velocity, must very among different people. Therefore leading to the conclusion that all properties are secondary, and thus there is no distinction between Primary/Secondary qualities.