Locke's Distinction Between Ideas and Qualities - Essay Example

Locke: Ideas and Qualities I. John Locke is widely known as the Father of Liberalism and is one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers. His essays, like “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” and “Two Treatises of the Government” are two of the most influential philosophical essays of the entire time, particularly on the field of Political Science. In “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, he talks about how knowledge is acquired by using certain ideas and qualities. It is quite a challenge to read, mainly because it is a bit long and the references to ideas and qualities are being done interchangeably. However, it is clear to the reader what he means by qualities and ideas after reading the essay. This paper will try to explain what is a quality and an idea: Quality is innately different from an idea, in a sense that quality is influenced by the idea that is presented to you. II. What is an idea? The essay, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, is made to let the readers understand the foundations of epistemological philosophy that was burgeoning in the late 1600s. This examines the reliability and scope of the human knowledge compared to the uncritical beliefs and opinions that were popular during Locke’s time. Now in the essay, Locke states how we acquire the basic ideas that we use in order for us to build knowledge. These basic materials are what we call ideas. These ideas are everything, basically: concrete sensory objects such as color and texture, to abstract ones such as my love for family, memories of my childhood, mathematical equations and management principles (Locke, 1690). In part one of the essay, Locke refutes the idea that all knowledge is inherent. For the Platonists of Cambridge and Lord Herbert of Cherbury, knowledge is inherent and Locke passionately disagrees. Locke insisted that morality and the principles of physics are acquired, not inborn as the Platonists suggest. Locke argued that the mentally defective people, as well as the children, have no ways to comprehend these. Additionally, if these were indeed innate knowledge, then these principles can be immediately explained by having shared experiences or self-evidence. All in all, Locke also argued that all knowledge is not inborn because the foundations that led us to believe this knowledge is acquired as well (Locke, 1690)! To answer the problem about ideas being innate or not, Locke presented the thought that all knowledge and ideas comes from experience. This is the fundamental principle of sensory. His theory goes like this, all ideas come from experiences; and the mind is just an empty room at first. All the ideas/knowledge comes from sensation, we obtain the ideas of things that are supposed to exist in the outside world, and we do it by using our senses. The other way of acquiring knowledge is by reflection, we acquire ideas by having our own mental operations. For example, “blue” and “hard” are all ideas of the sensation. “Thinking” and “remembering” on the other hand, are ideas of “reflection”. Ideas such as “pleasure” and “existence” are ideas that are from sensation and reflection. However, this thought can be prevent simply by saying, how can I imagine and perceive (and ultimately know) about the unicorn when I haven’t even saw one? If knowledge comes from experience, I should not know about it. The idea of the unicorn (or the knowledge of the unicorn) can be made by combining two ideas: the knowledge of horses and a single horn on a head. These ideas make the unicorn a real knowledge for me. With that, we can say that Locke (1690) basically says that every idea (or knowledge) can be broken down and analyzed into simple elements and figure out that all ideas and knowledge are made from simple experiences as well. That is a way to figure out if knowledge is acquired or not There are also complex ideas. This is thinking, and this is what separates animals from humans. Perceptions of ideas are stored in the memory and the mind uses sit passively as we encounter new ideas. It processes the idea and adapts it, and makes another new idea for it to become the base for another new idea. Similarly, distinguishing, comparing and compounding also fall in this section in terms of complex ideas (1690). III. Quality Now Locke uses the words ideas and qualities interchangeably. However, two things are completely different. Ideas of sensation, like colors, textures, sizes and shape are made up of qualities. The idea is red but the qualities of lightness and darkness of color for example, stems from the amount of light in the room and the condition of your eyes. However, solidity (or liquidity) is independent of such factors. Thus, the qualities of something influence how you receive or interpret ideas. There are two kinds of qualities, primary and secondary qualities. Primary qualities are those qualities that you can’t separate from the thing, even if you derive it into simplest forms. But then again, these make our knowledge of them sensible, even if our primary quality perception is different from our perception of the whole object. These are like facts: an objects molecular structure for example, or a chemical composition. It will not matter if you sense it or not. It will not matter if your experiences are quite different from each other, the chemical composition of something will stay the same. Secondary qualities are those qualities that are nothing in the thing itself but makes you think of the idea once you think/see the object. The secondary qualities are those things that make you think of color, texture, shape and sizes that relate to the primary qualities. They have powers that cause the idea to be perceptible in other things. In short, these ideas are also one of those ideas that can cause perceptible changes in other things. For example a flower, say a rose. The primary qualities of the rose are it’s molecular structure and chemical composition. The secondary qualities of the rose are its red color and sweet fragrance. These qualities produce certain prick myself with the thorns the pain I feel is not intrinsic to the rose itself, just like the color and scent. The qualities of the rose are facts. They cannot be changed. However, these qualities can be interpreted in many ways, especially for secondary qualities, and that interpretation is dependent on one’s experiences. That is why most people do not have the same interpretations of the same object: their experiences are different from everybody else, especially when pain is the equation. Pain threshold for people is quite different on so many levels. What can be emotionally painful for one might not be painful for another, because of, again experiences. IV. Quality vs Idea Now obviously, the way we form new knowledge is dependent on how we make and perceive ideas. The ideas have that certain qualities in them that make us think in certain ways, influencing us. That influence is directly affects how we interpret the things around us, and that makes things quite different on the level of intelligence, or in this case, knowledge. As a conclusion, quality is totally different from an idea. Idea, like quality, forms knowledge, but then, as two separates entities of the senses and the mind. Quality can be interpreted in many different levels and ways as well. But the fact that knowledge is acquired, rather experienced, is greatly influenced by these ideas and for the record, most people believe it, making way for enlightenment to happen. Reference: Locke, J. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. (1690). Retrieved: http://homepages.wmich.edu/~baldner/lockereadings.pdf GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). 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