Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Letters to Edward Stillingfleet', 'The Poverty of Philosophy' and 'Collins Dictionary of Philosophy'

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4 ideas

9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 3. Individual Essences

15990	Every individual thing which exists has an essence, which is its internal constitution [Locke]
	Full Idea: I take essences to be in everything that internal constitution or frame for the modification of substance, which God in his wisdom gives to every particular creature, when he gives it a being; and such essences I grant there are in all things that exist.
	From: John Locke (Letters to Edward Stillingfleet [1695], Letter 1), quoted by Simon Blackburn - Quasi-Realism no Fictionalism
	A reaction: This is the clearest statement I have found of Locke's commitment to essences, for all his doubts about whether we can know such things. Alexander says (ch.13) Locke was reacting against scholastic essence, as pertaining to species.

11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 1. Certainty

15994	If it is knowledge, it is certain; if it isn't certain, it isn't knowledge [Locke]
	Full Idea: What reaches to knowledge, I think may be called certainty; and what comes short of certainty, I think cannot be knowledge.
	From: John Locke (Letters to Edward Stillingfleet [1695], Letter 2), quoted by Simon Blackburn - Quasi-Realism no Fictionalism
	A reaction: I much prefer that fallibilist approach offered by the pragmatists. Knowledge is well-supported belief which seems (and is agreed) to be true, but there is a small shadow of doubt hanging over all of it.

12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 4. Sense Data / b. Nature of sense-data

6457	Sensations are mental, but sense-data could be mind-independent [Vesey]
	Full Idea: Whereas a sensation is by definition mental, a sense-datum might be mind-independent.
	From: Godfrey Vesey (Collins Dictionary of Philosophy [1990], p.266)
	A reaction: This seems to be what Russell is getting at in 1912, as he clearly separates sense-data from sensations. Discussions of sense-data always assume they are mental, which may make them redundant - but so might making them physical.

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 11. Capitalism

21994	The handmill gives feudalism, the steam mill capitalism [Marx]
	Full Idea: The handmill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam mill society with the industrial capitalist.
	From: Karl Marx (The Poverty of Philosophy [1847], p.202), quoted by Peter Singer - Marx 7
	A reaction: If technology dictates social structure, then feudalism is still with us, in low-tech industries. What if the steam mill had been invented in 1300?