John Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding

John Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding In John Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he makes a distinction between the sorts of ideas we can conceive of in the perception of objects. Locke separates these perceptions into primary and secondary qualities. Regardless of any criticism of such a distinction, it is a necessary one in that, without it, perception would be a haphazard affair. To illustrate this, an examination of Lockes definition of primary and secondary qualities is necessary. Starting from common-sense notions of perception, namely that there must be something in order to perceive something, Locke continues by arguing that ideas in the mind correspond to qualities in the object being†¦show more content†¦Such qualities which in truth are nothing in the objects themselves but powers to produce various sensations in us by their primary qualities, i.e. by the bulk, figure, texture and motion of their insensible parts, as colours, sounds, tastes, c... 22 Our senses are limited to a certain stratum of perception. We cannot, with our naked eyes, see the workings of atoms, nor the interplay of light particles and atoms in objects in the production of colour. However, we can see the results of those interactions, and when light reflects off an object, we can absorb that light with our eyes. Now, when that sense stimulus produces an idea in our minds we interpret it as a colour such as red, green, blue, and so on. This is what Locke meant by secondary qualities. With this distinction in mind, primary qualities are necessary for an object to be an object while secondary qualities are not. Secondary qualities are contingent upon a perceiver to interpret the sensations produced by primary qualities. Primary qualities are the cause; secondary qualities are the effect. Nowhere in this essay has the notion of substance or matter been mentioned but it has been assumed. The assumption of the notion of substance in the foregoing distinction of primary and secondary qualities of objects is where George Berkeley’s Idealism finds fault with Locke’s materialistic account. What Locke assumes substance to be is what cannot beShow MoreRelatedJohn Lockes Philosophy Essay724 Words   |  3 PagesJohn Locke was born in 1632. He earned his bachelor’s Degree in 1656 and a masters degree in 1658. In 1690 Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding appeared. From this came Tabula rasa. This then laid the foundation for environmentalism. 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