spirits can produce such manifestations or how it is possible for them 

 to do so. 



LOCKE'S THEORY OF HUMAN UNDERSTANDING. 



The reasoning of Locke's theory is as follows: Reality is con- 

 stituted of three different kinds of things with their relationships. The 

 three kinds of things are minds, ideas, and bodies. The mind is a 

 receptive medium in which ideas arise by virtue of the operations of 

 matter or body. Anything which is present to the mind is an idea. 



Ideas are impressions made upon the mind and are of two kinds: 

 those caused by the primary qualities of objects and those caused by 

 the secondary qualities of objects. A quality of an object is the 

 power in it to produce ideas. The primary qualities produce ideas 

 which copy them or resemble them; the secondary qualities do not 

 produce resembling or copying ideas in the mind. The secondary 

 ideas are mere perceptions in the mind; the primary are modifications 

 or matter which cause ideas in us resembling them. It results from 

 the nature o-f these two kinds of ideas that secondary qualities reveal 

 to us nothing of the real object, while knowledge of primary qualities 

 is "real knowledge," knowledge of "real existence." 



Knowledge is the perception of the connection of, and agreement 

 or disagreement of, ideas. Thus the originals of knowledge are 

 ideas of sensation impressed upon the mind by matter and knowl- 

 edge is limited by the existence and nature of ideas. 



Thus Locke concludes his task. He sought the originals, cer- 

 tainty, and extent of human knowledge: he found its originals in the 

 ideas; its extent in the limits of their relationships; and its certainty 

 dependent upon the directness with which the mind perceives those 

 relationships. 



The problem which Locke sought to solve was one of definition 

 and origin. He asked: what is knowledge and in what manner does 

 it come to be. As we have seen, Locke succeeds in answering both 

 questions. We are here interested in determining by what method he 

 reaches his conclusions. 



Locke entered upon his thinking with a certain conception of 

 mind. He conceives the mind to be an empty cabinet into which 

 ideas get; or a plastic medium upon which they are impressed. This 

 conception, he takes for valid without question. Such a mind is not 

 directly revealed in experience and Locke performed no experiments in 

 search of evidence for its existence or for its nature. He assumed both 

 to be as he conceived them. 



This conception of mind which Locke assumed, involved in it 



[6] 



