display all the ideas for this combination of texts
2 ideas
| 7717 | All things that exist are particulars [Locke] |
| Full Idea: All things that exist are particulars. | |
| From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 3.03.01) | |
| A reaction: This slogan is the essence of nominalism, the denial that universals exist as well as particulars. |
| 7718 | Universals do not exist, but are useful inventions of the mind, involving words or ideas [Locke] |
| Full Idea: General and universal belong, not to the real existence of things, but are the inventions and creatures of the understanding, made by it for its own use, and concern only signs, whether words, or ideas. | |
| From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], III.3.11) | |
| A reaction: This places Locke as a thoroughgoing nominalist. However, while the most basic question of all is said to be 'why does anything exist?', another pretty good one is 'Why do things resemble one another?'. Maybe the universal had to come first? |