Single Idea 19358

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 2. Qualities in Perception / e. Primary/secondary critique]

Full Idea

Ideas such as those of colour and pain are not arbitrary. ...That is not God's way ...I would say there is a resemblance of a kind, not a perfect one, but a resemblance in which one thing expresses another through some orderly relationship between them.

Gist of Idea

Colour and pain must express the nature of their stimuli, without exact resemblance

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 2.08)

Book Reference

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'New Essays on Human Understanding', ed/tr. Remnant/Bennett [CUP 1996], p.131


A Reaction

The main point of Locke's idea of 'secondary' qualities is that (unlike the 'primary' ones) they bear no resemblance to their stimuli. It's not much of an argument from Leibniz, to say that is not God's way, but he has a vast system to support his claim.