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Single Idea 7049

[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 2. Qualities in Perception / c. Primary qualities ]

Full Idea

Readers of Locke have been wrong to imagine that primary qualities are not themselves powers.

Clarification

'Powers' initiate causal sequences

Gist of Idea

In Locke, the primary qualities are also powers

Source

report of John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.08.15) by John Heil - From an Ontological Point of View 17.2

Book Ref

Heil,John: 'From an Ontological Point of View' [OUP 2005], p.197


A Reaction

This is part of the move to connect Locke with modern essentialism about natural laws. If a disposition is a power, then clearly being hard or square will affect the dispositions, and hence be a power. Secondary qualities result from powers.


The 21 ideas with the same theme [qualities considered independent of observation]:

Many objects of sensation are common to all the senses [Aristotle]
Atoms only have shape, weight and size, and the properties which accompany shape [Epicurus]
Primary qualities are the cause of all the other sensible qualities [Albertus Magnus]
The primary qualities are mixed to cause secondary qualities [Burley]
For Descartes, objects have one primary quality, which is geometrical [Descartes, by Robinson,H]
Locke believes matter is an inert, senseless substance, with extension, figure and motion [Locke, by Berkeley]
Qualities are named as primary if they are needed for scientific explanation [Locke, by Alexander,P]
Primary qualities produce simple ideas, such as solidity, extension, motion and number [Locke]
Ideas of primary qualities resemble their objects, but those of secondary qualities don't [Locke]
In Locke, the primary qualities are also powers [Locke, by Heil]
Primary qualities (such as shape, solidity, mass) are held to really exist, unlike secondary qualities [Berkeley]
Primary qualities are the object of mathematics [Reid]
Primary qualities are number, figure, size, texture, motion, configuration, impenetrability and (?) mass [Ellis]
You don't need to know how a square thing looks or feels to understand squareness [McGinn]
Touch doesn't provide direct experience of primary qualities, because touch feels temperature [McGinn]
We can perceive objectively, because primary qualities are not mind-created [McGinn]
Touch only seems to reveal primary qualities [Scruton]
We say objects possess no intrinsic secondary qualities because physicists don't need them [Robinson,H]
Primary qualities can be described mathematically, unlike secondary qualities [Cardinal/Hayward/Jones]
An object cannot remain an object without its primary qualities [Cardinal/Hayward/Jones]
The aspects of objects that can be mathematical allow it to have objective properties [Meillassoux]