Locke (Arguments of the Philosophers)

616 Pages·1993·3.69 MB·English

by  Michael Ayers

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