Thus, from the fact that there is now thinking in the...

Thus, from the fact that there is now thinking in the universe, it follows that there always has been thinking in the universe; the first eternal being from which all else flows must itself be a thinking thing. What is more, Locke argued, it is likely (though not, technically, demonstrably certain) that this first eternal being is actually immaterial.

Whether the original being were a single atom, or an eternal system of many parts, or whether every material thing thinks, Locke thought the possibility of a material thinking being at the start difficult to defend. On his view, we don't even have respectable grounds for supposing that a separate material reality is co-eternal with the necessarily cogitative first…