Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Nicolas Malebranche, John Locke and Michael Tooley

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3 ideas

27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / a. Explaining movement
Motion is just change of distance between two things [Locke]
     Full Idea: Motion is nothing but change of distance between two things.
     From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.13.14)
     A reaction: If a thing moved steadily relative to other objects, and we then removed all other objects in the universe, would it still be moving?
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / c. Forces
Boyle and Locke suspect forces of being occult [Locke, by Alexander,P]
     Full Idea: I believe that both Boyle and Locke were suspicious of forces, regarding them as occult.
     From: report of John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694]) by Peter Alexander - Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles 7
     A reaction: I take this to be key difference between these two and Leibniz, with the latter on the side of the angels.
An insurmountable force in a body keeps our hands apart when we handle it [Locke]
     Full Idea: The bodies which we daily handle make us perceive that they do by an insurmountable force hinder the approach of the parts of our hands that press them.
     From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.04.01)
     A reaction: This is interesting for a rare use of the word 'force' by Locke. I like the empiricist approach to these things, of actually contemplating handling physical objects. Empiricism keeps the feet of philosophy firmly on the ground.