John Locke in his "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" says that our ideas are like images in our mind. He also believes our ideas are made of particular things (i.e. John, Peter, etc.) but that we also have general terms (i.e. mankind or human beings).
Does he succeed? I don't think he does. The reason why, I think, is because he is an "imagist" (that is he believes that all ideas are images) and his process of abstraction as an explanation for our general ideas doesn't seem plausible.
However, I need some insight on how to formulate an argument on why John Locke does not succeed in explaining how we can think about not just this or that particular person but mankind or human beings in general.
Any ideas?
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Sources:
[1] SparkNotes: Essay Concerning Human Understanding: Book III, chapter iii, sections 1-9: General Terms
"How, Locke asks in Book III, chapter iii, do we get these general terms? Since words refer to ideas, general terms, naturally, refer to general ideas. General ideas are produced through a process of abstraction. We take our ideas of Frisky, Tiger, Felix, and Snowball, and we attend to what is similar in all of these, discarding what is different. From what is common to all of them (fur, soft, meow, arched shape, etc.), we form a new idea. This is our abstract general idea of cat (also sometimes referred to as a "partial idea"), and we attach to it the general name "cat."" [1]
Does he succeed? I don't think he does. The reason why, I think, is because he is an "imagist" (that is he believes that all ideas are images) and his process of abstraction as an explanation for our general ideas doesn't seem plausible.
However, I need some insight on how to formulate an argument on why John Locke does not succeed in explaining how we can think about not just this or that particular person but mankind or human beings in general.
Any ideas?
-----------------------------
Sources:
[1] SparkNotes: Essay Concerning Human Understanding: Book III, chapter iii, sections 1-9: General Terms