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Full Idea
The power to produce any idea in our mind I call 'quality' of the subject wherein that power is.
Gist of Idea
A 'quality' is a power to produce an idea in our minds
Source
John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.08.08)
Book Ref
Locke,John: 'Essay Concerning Human Understanding', ed/tr. Nidditch,P.H. [OUP 1979], p.135
A Reaction
This strikes me as much the most accurate way to think of properties, but then I accept Locke's distinction between primary and secondary properties. Red is a property of brains, not of tomatoes. Tomatoes have power to cause this property.
Related Idea
Idea 3757 Causal theory says true perceptions must be caused by the object perceived [Bernecker/Dretske]
| 1532 | Sensible qualities can't be real if they appear different to different creatures [Democritus, by Theophrastus] |
| 12478 | A 'quality' is a power to produce an idea in our minds [Locke] |
| 6991 | We examine objects to determine colour; we do not introspect [Jackson] |
| 15509 | Some say qualities are parts of things - as repeatable universals, or as particulars [Lewis] |
| 7028 | If properties were qualities without dispositions, they would be undetectable [Heil] |
| 7029 | Can we distinguish the way a property is from the property? [Heil] |
| 7030 | Properties don't possess ways they are, because that just is the property [Heil] |
| 8276 | Properties or qualities are essentially adjectival, not objectual [Lowe] |