Even when considered more modestly...

Even when considered more modestly, as collections of properties that co-exist in a common substrate, our complex ideas of substances are merely partial approximations, since it is clear that they include only those features we have most commonly observed; it always remains possible for us to be surprised by the discovery of another property that belongs just as surely in the same being.

[Essay II xxxi 6-11] As always, ideas derived from experience can be no more adequate than the experience itself, and with respect to natural things our experience is limited. Although he maintained that truth and falsity are most properly regarded as characteristic of propositions, Locke granted that ideas are sometimes said to be true or false (better: right or wrong) by virtue of the role they play in the formation or assertion of such propositions.

[Essay II xxxii 1-5] It is the relation between ideas and the words used to signify them that matters for this representational criterion. Because of their familiarity in our experience and the frequency of our discourse about them, our ideas of natural substances and their qualities are often truly signified by the common terms we employ to designate them.

[Essay II xxxii 6-10] It is the ideas of mixed modes, manufactured independently in the minds of individual thinkers and lacking any external referent, that are most commonly false in this linguistic sense, because we do not agree on the signification of their names. [Essay II xxxii 11-13] On the whole, then, Locke believed that ideas provide a vital but imperfect foundation for human discourse and knowledge.

As we continue our study with an examination of his philosophy of language and of knowledge, we'll be reminded of the limitations imposed by the reliability of ideas of each type. ©1999-2002 Garth Kemerling.Last modified 27 October 2001.Questions, comments, and suggestions may be sent to: the Contact Page.

Words Since the significatory function of words is especially vital for the achievement and expression of human knowledge, Locke devoted an entire Book of the Essay to his careful examination of "the Nature, Use, and Signification of Language." [Essay II xxxiii 19] On Locke's view, language is the instrument of all human social interaction, for the employment of which we are provided with three crucial requirements: First, we have appropriate physical organs with which to form a great variety of articulate sounds.