LOCKE John Locke is the greatest English philosopher. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, one of the most influential books in the history of thought, is his greatest work. In this study the historical meaning and philosophical significance of Locke’s Essay are investigated more comprehensively than ever before. Locke is the result of many years’ work. Already influential through his writings on the history of philosophy, Michael Ayers has produced a study of Locke’s Essay which is an important contribution to both scholarship and philosophy. This study was originally published in two volumes, Epistemology and Ontology. This paperback edition has within its covers the full text of both volumes. Michael Ayers is a Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and a Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford University. The Arguments of the Philosophers EDITOR: TED HONDERICH Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College, London The purpose of this series is to provide a contemporary assessment and history of the entire course of philosophical thought. Each book constitutes a detailed, critical introduction to the work of a philosopher of major influence and significance. Already published in the series: *Augustine Christopher Kirwan *J.L.Austin Geoffrey Warnock Ayer John Foster *Bentham Ross Harrison Bergson A.R.Lacey *Berkeley George Pitcher Butler Terence Penelhum * Descartes Margaret Dauler Wilson *Dewey J.E.Tiles †Gottlob Frege Hans Sluga Hegel M.J.Inwood Hobbes Tom Sorell Hume Barry Stroud Husserl David Bell William James Graham Bird *Kant Ralph C.S.Walker Kierkegaard Alastair Hannay *Karl Marx Allen Wood †Meinong Reinhart Grossman *John Stuart Mill John Skorupski *G.E.Moore Tom Baldwin iii *Nietzsche Richard Schacht Peirce Christopher Hookway *Plato Justin Gosling *Karl Popper Anthony O’Hear *The Presocratic Philosophers Jonathan Barnes *Thomas Reid Keith Lehrer *Russell R.M.Sainsbury †Santayana Timothy L.S.Sprigge *Sartre Peter Caws *Schopenhauer D.W.Hamlyn *Socrates Gerasimos Xenophon Santas Spinoza R.J.Delahunty *Wittgenstein Robert J.Fogelin *available in paperback †no longer available LOCKE Epistemology and Ontology Michael Ayers London and New York First published as two volumes 1991 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 First published in paperback 1993 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an International Thomson Publishing company © 1991 Michael Ayers All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Ayers, Michael, 1935–Locke/Michael Ayers. p. cm.—(Arguments of the philosophers) Two previously hard bound vols. are combined in 1. pbk. vol. Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-203-00641-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-17431-3 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-10030-5 (Print Edition) 1. Locke, John, 1632–1704. Essay concerning human understanding. 2. Knowledge, Theory of-History-17th century. 3. Ontology-History-17th century. I. Title. II. Series. B1294.A94 1993 192–dc20 93–15180 CIP Contents VOLUME I EPISTEMOLOGY Acknowledgements x Introduction 1 PART I IDEAS 1 Introduction to Part I 11 2 Ideas and compositionalism in traditional logic 16 3 Ideas and epistemology before Locke 22 4 Simple and complex ideas 31 5 Ideas as images 38 6 Ideas as intentional acts and ideas as intentional objects 45 7 Ideas as natural signs 52 8 Ideas: a summary 59 9 Reflections on the structure of thought 62 PART II KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF 10 Introduction to Part II 70 11 The degrees of knowledge and the role of method 76 12 Other divisions of knowledge 83 13 Probability and the nature of ‘assent’ 90 14 The grounds of probability 98 15 Reflections on the definition of knowledge 109 16 Belief and rationality 127 CONTENTS vii PART III PERCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE 17 Introduction to Part III 133 18 The authority and limits of ‘sensitive knowledge’ 135 19 Does perceptual knowledge have independent authority? 145 20 Does perceptual knowledge have a firm boundary? 151 21 The scope of perceptual knowledge 158 22 Two modern approaches to sensation 170 23 Private language and secondary qualities 183 PART IV PARTICULARS, UNIVERSALS AND INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE 24 Introduction to Part IV 194 25 Locke’s arguments on space and time in context 196 26 Thought about particulars 209 27 Locke’s theory of universal knowledge in context 213 28 Abstraction and the ideal of precision 228 29 Intuition and innate knowledge 232 30 Locke on meaning and some modern criticisms 237 31 Reflections on understanding and imagination 244 32 Necessity, reason and language 255 33 Conclusions of Volume I 266 Notes 270 Bibliography 297 Index 301 VOLUME II ONTOLOGY Introduction 1 PART I SUBSTANCE AND MODE viii CONTENTS 1 Introduction to Part I 15 2 Substance, essence and accidents before Locke 18 3 Our complex ideas of substances and the idea of substance 31 in general 4 Substance and real essence, matter and spirit, and the 39 obscurity and confusion of the idea of substance 5 Substance, mode and the argument from language 51 6 Species and their names in the corpuscularian world 65 7 Are there real species? 78 8 Locke on the difference between substances and modes 91 9 Reflections on the notion of substance 110 PART II GOD, NATURE AND THE LAW OF NATURE 10 Introduction to Part II 131 11 Forms of mechanism before Locke 135 12 The form of Locke’s mechanism 142 13 Reflections on rationalism, empiricism and mechanism 154 14 The existence of God 169 15 The Law of Nature and human freedom 184 16 Reflections on Locke’s ethics 196 PART III IDENTITY 17 Introduction to Part III 205 18 Locke on ‘masses of matter’ 207 19 Locke on living things 216 20 Forms of material unity 229 21 Artificial and other problematic objects 239 22 Personal identity before the Essay 254 23 Locke’s theory of personal identity 260 24 Contemporary reactions to Locke’s theory 269 25 Neo-Lockean and anti-Lockean theories of personal identity 278 in analytic philosophy CONTENTS ix 26 Conclusions of Volume II 293 Notes 297 Bibliography 329 Index 333