PHIL 250 Lecture 12: Locke on Nominal and Real Essence; Locke on Knowledge
10 Mar 2017
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Locke on nominal and real essence; locke on knowledge: when locke talks of substances (in the plural) he means naturally occurring things or stuff , things which subsist by themselves . Thus, a dog, a tree, gold, mercury, and sand are all substances. Locke contrasts substances with modes (e. g. red, good, quick, murder, shape) which are things (properties) that cannot subsist by themselves. (when locke speaks of. Modes he means determinate modifications of a substance; i. e. that which determines the way the substance is. ) As we have seen, locke argues that our abstract, general idea of a substance, e. g. of. Knowledge of the real essence of water would explain the features we identify as the. Locke contrasts the nominal essence of a substance with its real essence . The real water, constitutes a set of criteria (a kind of checklist) by which we can determine whether or not something is water.
