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Locke's metaphysics / Matthew Stuart.
LIBRA B1298.M48 S78 2013
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Stuart, Matthew, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Locke, John, 1632-1704. Essay concerning human understanding.
- Locke, John.
- Philosophy, English--17th century.
- Philosophy, English.
- Metaphysics.
- Physical Description:
- xvii, 522 pages ; 25 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- Oxford : Clarendon Press, 2013.
- Summary:
- Though Locke set out to write a book that would resolve questions about the origin and scope of human knowledge, his Essay Concerning Human Understanding is also a profound contribution to metaphysics, full of arguments about the fundamental features of bodies, the notions of essence and kind, the individuation of material objects, personal identity, the scope of volition, freedom of action, freedom of will, and the relationship between matter and mind. Matthew Stuart examines a broad range of these arguments, and explores the connections between them. He offers fresh interpretations of such familiar material as the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, and Locke's account of personal identity; and he also takes us deeper into less familiar territory, including Locke's philosophy of action. Locke's Metaphysics shows Locke to be a more consistent, systematic, and interesting metaphysician than is generally appreciated. It shows how his rejection of essentialism leads him to embrace relativism about identity, and that his relativism about identity is the key to defending his account of personal identity against several objections. Yet the picture of Locke that emerges is not always a familiar one. Stuart's account reveals that he is a philosopher who denies the existence of relations, and who takes bodies to be colored only so long as we are looking at them. He shows that Lockean persons are three-dimensional beings with 'gappy', rather than continuous, pasts. Finally, he shows that Locke is a volitionist who holds that we can will only our own thoughts and bodily motions, and not such episodes as lighting a candle or turning the pages of a book. Book jacket.
- Contents:
- 1 Categories 1
- §1 Introduction 1
- §2 Modes 4
- §3 Substances 7
- §4 Mixed Modes 16
- §5 Relations 24
- 2 Qualities 33
- §6 Qualities and Powers 34
- §7 Qualities in the Drafts 39
- §8 Defining Primary Qualities 46
- §9 Extension 53
- §10 Solidity 55
- §11 Other Primary Qualities 65
- 3 Secondary Qualities 79
- §12 Two Kinds of Secondary Qualities 80
- §13 Resemblances and Bare Powers 88
- §14 Colors 105
- §15 Degenerate Powers 117
- §16 Apparent Colors 121
- §17 Colors and Pains 128
- §18 Transient Colors 133
- §19 Other Powers 136
- 4 Essence 141
- §20 Real and Nominal Essences 142
- §21 Relative and Total Real Essences 148
- §22 Workmanship of the Understanding 154
- §23 Anti-Essentialism 162
- §24 Natural Kinds 172
- §25 Perfecting Nominal Essences 183
- 5 Substratum 199
- §26 The Idea of Substance 200
- §27 Making the Idea of Substance 207
- §28 A Variety of Readings 213
- §29 Obscurity 225
- §30 Confusedness 233
- §31 Problems with the Idea of Substance 239
- 6 Mind and Matter 245
- §32 Immaterial Substances 245
- §33 A Case for Dualism 250
- §34 Thinking Matter 264
- §35 Arbitrary Determinations 280
- §36 Voluntarism 286
- §37 Mechanism 293
- 7 Identity 297
- §38 Principles of Individuation 298
- §39 The Problem of Constitution 306
- §40 Matter and Temporal Parts 308
- §41 Persons and their Parts 310
- §42 The Difficulty About this Relation 313
- §43 Against Co-location 318
- §44 Women and Masses 322
- §45 The Oak and the Horse 326
- §46 Essence and Identity 328
- §47 Annihilation 334
- 8 Persons 339
- §48 Introducing Persons 340
- §49 Persons and Substances 347
- §50 The Necessity Claim 352
- §51 Remembering and Forgetting 359
- §52 The Sufficiency Claim 365
- §53 A Fatal Error? 368
- §54 Assessing the Simple Memory Theory 378
- 9 Agency: The First Edition 391
- §55 Volition as Preference 392
- §56 The Objects of Volition 399
- §57 Voluntary Action 403
- §58 Freedom and Forbearance 406
- §59 Volition and Negative Action 411
- §60 A Problem for Locke's Account 418
- §61 Freedom of the Will 423
- §62 Motivation and Preference 434
- 10 Agency: The Revised Account 443
- §63 Rethinking Volition 444
- §64 Rethinking Motivation 451
- §65 A Mistake of One Word 457
- §66 Suspending Desire 459
- §67 Suspension and Indeterminism 467
- §68 Suspension and Freedom 473
- §69 Motivation and Judgment 476
- §70 Forbearance in the Fifth Edition 481.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 493-506) and indexes.
- ISBN:
- 9780199645114
- 0199645116
- OCLC:
- 829743936
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