PHILOS 2XX3 Lecture : Locke on Primary and Secondary Qualities
20 Jan 2012
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Locke: primary and secondary qualities and on complex. Whatever the mind perceives in itself or in the immediate object of perception, thought, or understanding, that i call ideas, And the power to produce any idea in the mind i call a quality of the subject. Qualities: primary qualities (e. x. solidity, extension, shape, mobility) Our ideas of solidity, extension, shape, motion, rest and number all resemble these original or primary qualities of bodies. All bodies will have these qualities, they are the real qualities of bodies: secondary qualities (e. x. colours, sounds, tastes, smells) These do not exist separate from our experience of them. Objects have powers to affect us in such a way that we have certain sensations. They exercise these powers by causing motions in the medium and ultimately in our sense organs and brains. But these is nothing in the objects themselves that resembles the sensation we have of (e. x. ) redness.
